Climatic changes could cause a conflict in Arctic – NATO's Supreme Allied Commander

13.10.2010 US Navy ADM James G. Stavridis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe warned that global warming and campaign for resources could provoke a conflict in Arctic, reports Terry Macalister.

Meanwhile, today NATO members and Russia held the unprecedented talks on environmental security in the Arctic Ocean. These consultations held as a seminar and co-chaired by Russia are an attempt to dialog with Moscow and to prevent another cold war, writes the Guardian's Terry McAllister.

Stavridis set out his ideas in the introduction to the British government's report named "Environmental Security in the Arctic Ocean: promoting cooperation and preventing conflict".

Paul A. Berkman, the Cambridge professor who is the report's author and one of the seminar's initiators brought to light a necessity to find a balance between national interests and mankind interests in Arctic. That is the region still exposed to cold war, says the author. The seminar was attended by politicians, scientists, executives, and companies from 16 countries including co-chairman professor Alexander Vylegzhanin, the Russian Academy of Sciences.