The United States has opened its northernmost diplomatic station in the world as a symbol of the Arctic's increased importance to Washington.

In June, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the opening of the station in the Norwegian Arctic town of Tromsø. He said the station would allow the U.S. to have a "diplomatic footprint above the Arctic Circle".

The U.S. station, called a "presence post", will not offer consular services.

Symbolically, it is significant, Andreas Oesthagen, a senior research fellow at the Oslo-based Fridtjof Nansen Institute, said.

It is a gesture that showcases just how much more important the U.S. sees the Arctic now than only five or ten years ago," he added.

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