The council’s member states also signed a legally binding treaty to cooperate in search and rescue efforts in the event of a disaster in the Arctic.
The treaty calls for council members to demonstrate and live up to their capacity to cooperate in search and rescue efforts after a plane crash, an oil spill, a ship sinking or other disaster.
Foreign affairs ministers from Norway, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark as well as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former health minister of Canada Leona Agglukkaq signed the treaty at a ministerial meeting in Nuuk, Greenland on Thursday.
Member nations also pledged to develop international standards for oil spill prevention and response preparedness to be modeled after the search and rescue treaty.
The intergovernmental forum is expecting increased shipping traffic and offshore oil and gas activity in the region as the extent of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean diminishes, offering easier navigation routes.
Sweden will chair the Arctic Council until 2013.
