10 – 12 FEBRUARY 2026
Registration Opening Soon

The world is undergoing a period of significant geopolitical uncertainty. Unlike during the Cold War, what is certain today is that Arctic geopolitics no longer serves as the frontier between East and West. Today, great-power geopolitics is Arctic geopolitics.

The Arctic region has become the epicentre of both Arctic and non-Arctic state geopolitics, divided between NATO and Russia. Non-Arctic powers—from the EU and UK to China and India to Iran—are newly establishing or refocusing existing national Arctic interests.

In the North American Arctic, Canada is focused on strengthening its NORAD cooperation with the U.S. while actively seeking new defence and security partnerships with its Nordic Arctic and European neighbours, including closer cooperation with Greenland as part of its North American Arctic neighbourhood.

Similarly, the Nordic Arctic is strengthening its defence and security partnerships regionally, within NATO, and with its North American Arctic partners, while non-Arctic NATO nations seek greater Arctic engagement through NATO’s growing focus on its Arctic flank, including expanding initiatives on cold-weather operations and accompanying innovations.

Meanwhile, China, India, and Iran are anchoring themselves in the Russian Arctic through cooperation with Moscow to advance their Arctic maritime and energy interests. More broadly, Asian states—including Japan, Singapore, and South Korea, alongside China and India—continue to strengthen their Arctic-focused initiatives among themselves and with their Nordic and North American Arctic counterparts ranging from building icebreakers to science and innovation.

At home in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney has vowed that Canada will be strong on defence and strong on the economy. The Arctic is considered a strategic priority in achieving this and investments in nation-building infrastructure have become the stated means to this end. The decades-long efforts by Northerners to get Ottawa to invest in Arctic nation-building projects, are now among the projects of national priority.

Beyond diplomacy, NATO countries recognise that mobilising private capital for defence—on a scale not seen in half a century—is essential to meet today’s geopolitical realities. In response, governments and defence departments are developing new policies to enable financial institutions to make major private capital investments for dual-use projects, including next generation defence innovations needed today and to meet today’s geopolitical demands and the expanding web of strategic security, defence and critical minerals cooperations stretching from the Nordic Arctic through Europe, Greenland, Canada and the U.S.

Set against the backdrop of a world coming undone and remade at the top of the globe is the theme for our Annual 2026 Arctic Conference.

Arctic Geopolitics is Global Geopolitics: Global geopolitics is unfolding on the Earth’s axis. The Arctic political space has become one of undoing, strengthening, and testing Arctic state alliances, alongside expanding strategic cooperation with non-Arctic states to address growing defence and security risks driven by heightened strategic interest in the region. In effect, Arctic diplomacy is no longer solely a moral imperative but a strategic necessity—moving from sidebar discussions to a central agenda item, as cooperative agreements are forged with urgency and purpose.

Global Capital and the Wartime Economy: The ripple effects of geopolitical realities have led to policy shifts policy shifts enabling financial institutions to invest in dual-use equipment, infrastructure, and projects—with both military and civilian applications. Accompanying this trend, is the emergence of private and Public-Private defence funds providing additional capital for investments in dual-use projects and cold-weather innovation.

One Canadian Economy: Canada’s northern focused nation-building projects are northern and Indigenous led and include multipurpose social, economic, and defence Arctic infrastructure. Public-Private-Indigenous partnerships will be essential, as is developing the strategic infrastructure investment strategy to get there.

Innovating out of the Arctic: Cold-weather innovation will be the new source of Arctic maritime and land-defence advantage, and the frontier technologies needed. Beyond NORAD and NATO, they are also the key to critical minerals mining, accompanying supply chains, and the next generation infrastructure for a secure and prosperous north and Arctic region.

Futureproofing Infrastructure: Digital and Data Sovereignty: Next-generation infrastructure is already here. The Arctic is no exception. Critical Arctic infrastructure must be sensor- and AI-embedded to guard against cyberattacks, to measure and monitor everything from permafrost melt to subsea activity, and infrastructure interoperability. This discussion, inevitably, begins with the discussion on data sovereignty. The question that remains is whose sovereignty and how to get there.

The North is Calling: We have the Critical Minerals you Need: Across the Arctic, many of today’s critical minerals project proponents are Northerners and Indigenous governments and companies. Yet stand-alone projects will not achieve the intended diversification and the capital required. Critical minerals cooperations with and among Arctic nations are becoming the means for strategic policy coordination to help create de-risking tools (including mechanisms to enable northern and Indigenous equity partnerships), full supply-chain development and means of stockpiling.

Conference Venue

1601 Lake Shore Blvd W, Toronto, Canada

Palais Royale has a private parking lot for our guests only on Lake Shore Blvd. directly in front of our facility. Street lights with pedestrian crossing ensures safe crossing for all of our guests.

Click here to download the parking map.