The meeting which took place in Chelsea, Canada, on the invitation of the Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon was another sign of the five Arctic countries’ stress of cooperation, peace and stability in the Arctic.
In his summery of the meeting, Minister Cannon stressed all the countries’ obligations towards the 2008 Ilulissat Declaration, a document which states that international law and the Law of the Sea is the foundation for relations in the region.
At the same time however, the five Arctic countries all see major opportunities in the development of the Arctic natural resources. In his summery, Mr. Cannon said that “while development may be years in the future, the renewable and non-renewable resource potential of the Arctic Ocean presents tremendous opportunities for the Arctic Ocean region”.
Also Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined that the meeting participants had stressed the need for preserving the “balance between economical and ecological interests” and that the respective countries’ competitive advantages should not be allowed to be limited by “artificial pretexts”, thus indicating that Russia would allow restrictions on the development of its Arctic natural resources.
The meeting participants also discussed research projects, shipping, rescue and emergency and shelf delimitation, a press release from the Russian Foreign Ministry reads.
