KMI International Journal of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
Korea Maritime Institute
Article

The analysis of the relationship between major East Asian countries and the Arctic Council

Li Weifang*, Wu Di**
*Corresponding Author: Professor, International Law Faculty in East China University of Politics Science and Law. E-mail: liweifang@ecupl.edu.cn
**Graduate student, International Law Faculty in East China University of Politics Science and Law. E-mail: interlaw@sina.com

© Copyright 2021 Korea Maritime Institute. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Aug 06, 2010; Accepted: Nov 29, 2010

Published Online: Dec 31, 2010

ABSTRACT

In recent years, with the debate over rights in the Arctic regions among coastal and world’s major countries, the Arctic issue has rapidly become a hot spot of global concern. The East Asian countries should also give active responses towards this issue. Given that the Arctic Council, as an intergovernmental organization consisting of eight Arctic countries, plays a significant leading role in Arctic affairs, by providing an overview of the work and developing trend of the Arctic Council, this paper analyzes the necessity and feasibility for East Asian countries (mainly refer to China, South Korea and Japan) of their participation in the Council and also proposes the suggestions on this basis to promote these countries’ position and their role in Arctic affairs.

Keywords: East Asia countries; Arctic Council; observer status