BPA President Song Sang-geun attends Arctic Circle Assembly 2026, held Thursday through Saturday; proposes 'Green Arctic Corridor' open to Arctic and non-Arctic nations

Busan Port Authority President Song Sang-geun attends the 2026 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland, over three days beginning Thursday, where he outlined principles for responsible Arctic use and discussed international cooperation built on trust and solidarity. [Busan Port Authority]
Busan Port Authority President Song Sang-geun attends the 2026 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland, over three days beginning Thursday, where he outlined principles for responsible Arctic use and discussed international cooperation built on trust and solidarity. [Busan Port Authority]

Busan Port Authority President Song Sang-geun attended the 2026 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland, from Thursday to Saturday, where he outlined principles for responsible use of the Arctic and discussed international cooperation grounded in trust and solidarity, the authority said.

Song was invited to speak at a session organized by the Arctic Economic Council, delivering a presentation titled "The Role of International Ports in Responsible Polar Connectivity." The Arctic Circle Assembly, held annually in Reykjavik every October since 2013, is the world's largest international forum on Arctic affairs, drawing more than 2,000 participants from over 70 countries, including government officials, international organizations, academics, industry representatives and indigenous community leaders.

In his remarks, Song said that if supply chain disruptions make exploring the Arctic route unavoidable, any such consideration must rest on three principles: environmental responsibility, safety, and international cooperation built on trust and solidarity. He added that these were lessons he drew from handling Arctic policy during his tenure at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and reflect his view of the role international ports should play.

He particularly highlighted three roles for ports: decarbonization through measures such as building green-fuel bunkering infrastructure and onshore power supply systems; serving as hubs for collecting, verifying and sharing sea-ice, meteorological and marine environmental data; and fostering cross-border port-to-port connectivity.

Song also proposed a "Green Arctic Corridor" as a framework for putting these principles into practice — a multilateral cooperation platform through which Arctic nations and non-Arctic countries such as South Korea would work together on the basis of mutual trust, share clean fuels and standards, ensure safety through science-based data, and respect indigenous communities.

On the sidelines of the assembly, Song met with Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, former president of Iceland and founder and chairman of the Arctic Circle, with whom he shared a sense of urgency over the Arctic climate and environmental crisis. The two exchanged views on Busan Port's decarbonization efforts and agreed to continue building trust-based international cooperation.


alsgp9737@heraldcorp.com