 Ladies and gentlemen, we will begin if you will please take your seat. The challenge is always corralling everybody back in the room. Well, again, thank you and many thanks to Vince Rigby giving us a great kickoff, really a tour de force of a very robust agenda. So our first panel is going to be a combination of both views from government, views from experts about the Canadian chairmanship, the stories so far. And we have an excellent group of panelists and in some ways some of these panels should be seminars unto themselves, but we'll be very mindful, giving panelists about eight to 10 minutes to provide opening remarks. I'll moderate a discussion among them for the first 15 minutes or so. And then I'm going to unleash this wonderful audience on them for tough, tough questions. So we are incredibly honored to have the premier of Nunavut, Peter Taptuna, who also serves as the minister of executive and intergovernmental affairs and the minister responsible for Aboriginal affairs. In addition to having an extraordinary career in the Nunavut government, many of you may not know that premier Taptuna has also worked in the oil and gas industry for over 13 years and served as one of the the first and only all Inuit drilling crew on an offshore rig in the Beaufort Sea. So someone with both the economic development experience as well as government experience. We are absolutely delighted to welcome Sue Harper back to Washington. We claim her as one of our own. Sue had served in the Canadian embassy here in Washington as the minister for economic affairs. So we are so delighted you are back. Sue serves as the director general and the senior Arctic official for Canada and is in the director general of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. She served a very distinguished career in trade policy as well and served as an ambassador of Canada to Uruguay. So Sue, we're delighted to have you here. Now, sort of shifting to my right, we are pleased to have Okalik Igisiak and please forgive me if I've mispronounced that Ms. Igisiak is the chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. She has served the distinguished background in the Inuit community and a variety of senior roles, a tireless advocate for Inuit rights, interests and aspirations. She has served in a variety of important positions in the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation and various others corporations. So we are, again, so grateful to have such a strong voice as a permanent participant as well, the Arctic Council. Moving to my right, we have Dr. Alexander Shestakov, is the director of the World Wildlife Fund's global Arctic program based in Ottawa and Sasha is the WWF representative to the Arctic Council. We in the think tank and expert community are so grateful. Sasha is a prolific writer on the Arctic. So insightful, has been an expert for the Russian Parliament on environmental law issues. He served as a member of the official Russian delegation to a number of international environmental conventions. So the World Wildlife Fund has a true treasure in Sasha and we're awfully glad that you are here with us. Thank you. And last but not least, we had a last minute substitute. A colleague, unfortunately had an emergency, could not be with us, but we have Dr. Andrea Sharon with us, assistant professor and deputy director of the Center for Defense and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Sharon has written extensively on the Arctic and a variety of issues related to safety and security in the Arctic and we're delighted that she can offer her insight. She's also worked in several Canadian federal departments, including the Privy Council secretariat. So again, what incredible depth and so we will begin with Premier Taptuna and we're going to work our way down the table. And so the chairmanship, the story so far and Premier Taptuna, you can begin with chapter one, the story from Nunavut. Thank you so much. Thank you very much for that introduction, Ms. Connolly. And I thank you all for giving me the opportunity to be speaking to you here this morning. I thank the organizers. I'm very pleased to be part of this panel. It gives me an opportunity. It gives us an opportunity to talk about accessing the present and shaping the future for the betterment of all Northerners and people of our great countries. Nunavut is a proud member of the circumpole world. I want to talk a little bit about Nunavut. It's over two million square kilometers. It's a huge territory. In other words, eight hundred and eight thousand square miles. So it is a huge territory. It's one of the newest territory in Canada. It's 15 years old this year. And it's over 20% of Canada's landmass and two thirds of Canada's coastline. Not only that, we have 18% of Canada's fresh water. In other words, we're very, very big. But our population is very small. We have a population of 36,400 spread among 25 communities throughout our vast territory. So it's always a challenge to bring in infrastructure and provide services for our smaller communities that we have around Nunavut. In other words, we have to build 25 of everything. 25 schools, 25 health centers, 25 airstrips. And the list goes on. It's a huge cost. For over 4,000 years, you knew he'd lived in this geographical area, which of course is now known as Nunavut. And in 1993, the land claims agreement was signed. This was the largest, most comprehensive modern day treaty of the time. And in 1999, that gives an opportunity to form the guarantee of that territory. Last year, I became the Premier of Nunavut, and my primary focus is to ensure that our communities are sustainable and prosperous. And we all know in order to do that, we have to be an active part of the world economy. Nunavut, as I indicated yesterday, has a wealth of resources and immense potential in many economic sectors. Including oil and gas, mining, commercial fishery, arts and crafts, and through a certain degree, tourism. At the moment, although we bought over 20% of the potential murals in our territory compared to Canada, we have only two operating mines. One operating for gold. And I believe we have some technical difficulties with our slideshow. It was a fast slide show. And the other one, of course, that just opened. It's on Baffin Island, Baffin iron ore, and that started production stockpiling just last week. I spoke about that a little bit yesterday, where the iron ore, they're just sitting on surfaces, or rather than calling it mine, I think we should be calling it corn because it's all that iron ore just sitting on the surface there. And there's been eight other mining projects in advanced stages of exploration. Their completion is expected to go into production in about 10 years time. On average, they will require $14 billion worth of investment in construction and machinered. They'll need 7500 workers for their operations and construction. And they'll be producing $8.5 billion worth of minerals on an annual basis and have an operational cost, of course, salary and operational cost of $3.5 billion annually. In addition, there are 33 other exploration activities that's happening in Nunavut in various stages of advancement. And all these companies are focused on every type of mineral that you can think of, gold, precious, diamond, base metal, uranium, and so forth. Last year, the mineral exploration expenditure in our territory may seem like a small amount, $250 million. But that puts us forth amongst the big mining jurisdictions like Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Additionally, discovered petroleum resources in Nunavut, about two billion barrels of crude oil, and $27 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. There are currently 20 licensed fields, mostly in a syrup-dropped basin. There's a small oil production between 1986 and 1996. At the Benthorn, on a camera now up in a high Arctic, Nunavut is estimated to have approximately a third of Canada's total petroleum resource, undiscovered resources, estimated by a geological survey of Canada. I believe to be many times higher than that. There's historical geological data that suggests vast resources in Nunavut's three dozen sedimentary basins. That imply a huge economic potential for future exploration and development. Estimates of the undiscovered conventional resources range from 25 to 267 billion barrels of oil, and between 285 to 1,230 trillion cubic feet of gas. The initiatives that the Arctic Council has taken during Canada's chairmanship will assist us in developing these industries and allow Arctic Committees to prosper and retain their cultural and traditional values at the same time. Nunavut's history in the involvement of the Arctic Council starts at the very beginning. The capital of Nunavut, which is snowing there today, was the location of the very first Arctic Council ministerial meeting in 1998, and we're very pleased that it will host the next ministerial meeting in April under Canada's chairmanship. The government of Nunavut is committed to Arctic Council and the support of Canada's chairmanship theme of development for the people of the North. I am proud of the strong leadership of the Canadian chairmanship by my fellow Nunavut, the Honorable Minister of Arctic Council, Leona Aluca. She has taken Arctic Council down a new path, which led to a successful facilitation of the creation of Arctic Economic Council. The people of the North are Canada's greatest asset in the Arctic, and this new forum will foster increased engagement of private sector and Arctic governance. It will be a valuable source of advice and expertise from this committee, from this council, and both governments and private sector will be looking for input from their expertise. Nunavut also supports a mental wellness project that was initiated under Canada's leadership. We are co-hosting a symposium on mental wellness in the Colleen in the spring of next year. Nunavut is very supportive and engaging in the work that Arctic Council has done with respect to marine safety in the Arctic. Shipping through the Arctic increases every year, and we need to ensure that the ships passing through the Arctic waters meet the necessary standards for Arctic shipping and Arctic conditions. We also need to be prepared for and take steps to prevent oil spills in Arctic waters. The work that the Arctic Council has done in oil spill prevention and response will help to ensure that oil and gas development in the Arctic is sustainable. The Arctic Council's work during Canada's chairmanship supports the development of sustainable circumpolar communities. We hope this work will continue into the US US chairmanship. As Nunavut continues to engage in stronger circumpolar relations and greater partnerships, we'll build our territory strength and make our best effort to address our challenges. We look forward to hearing what the focus and priorities of 2015 2017 US chairmanship will be. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you, Premier Teptuna. That was fantastic. And those statistics are just mind blowing. Thank you for sharing, Sue. Thank you, Heather. And I'd like to echo the thanks to CSAS and CG for organizing this event today and especially for putting together a panel that from our point of view reflects exactly the approach Canada likes to take in the Arctic Council, which is one of collaboration among the governments, the indigenous people of the Arctic region, business, civil society and scientific experts. So this is a steamed company and certainly good to have all these different perspectives on the question. We've just heard from the chair of the senior Arctic officials about the importance of evolution in the council and of taking a longer term view of the work we accomplished there. And he provided you with the overview of Canada's priority chairmanship initiatives and our collective progress in working toward their implementation. So from my part in the next few minutes, I'd like to focus a bit more on the importance of consensus building, both domestically and within the council and the importance of cooperation and continuity in the council. As a famous man once said, all politics is local. When considered in a multilateral context, this quote reminds us that we are always balancing the need to satisfy our own domestic priorities with those of our international partners. Within the Arctic Council, which is of course a consensus based organization, each chairmanship has a special responsibility to work to strike this balance while also considering the long term interests of the organization. In formulating Canada's chairmanship priorities, we regarded by our main government of Canada Arctic policies, that is Canada's Northern strategy and Canada's Arctic foreign policy, excuse me, foreign policy where the focus is on four pillars, protecting Canada's environmental heritage, promoting economic and social development, exercising Canada's sovereignty and improving and devolving governance. But we were also guided by the views and needs of those living in Canada's North. We knew we had to build consensus from within before we attempted to build consensus with our partners. That is why Minister of Luca consulted extensively across Canada's three territories in developing our chairmanship priorities, where she met with premiers and other elected representatives, Aboriginal peoples, business, research institutions, municipalities and NGOs. Underlining their key role in building Canada's Arctic Council policies, it is most apt that political representatives from all three territorial governments are participating in today's event and are able to share their own perspectives. Now I should add that for many years we've been using a special consultative body. We call the Arctic Council advisory committee to bring together representatives from our Canadian permanent participant organizations, our three territories and our government of Canada departments and agencies involved in Arctic issues. Here we exchange information, prepare for senior Arctic officials meetings and support the capacity building of our permanent participant delegations. This committee is so important to our process that it is even mentioned specifically in Canada's Arctic foreign policy. So once we completed our internal process, the next step was to seek the consensus of our Arctic Council partners. During these consultations, which happened at both the ministerial and senior Arctic official levels, we found broad and enthusiastic support by all Arctic Council members to focus on a suite of economic, social and environmental initiatives that benefit people from across the circumpolar north. This approach resonated with our partners. While we may all not live in the Arctic, we are all Arctic nations and we share similar challenges in our more northern areas. We also share the desire to see the work of the council make a difference. As the chair of the senior Arctic officials emphasize, the council needs to be strong and to be relevant. We believe in the importance of continuously working to strengthen the Arctic Council, including by carrying out tracking and archiving projects, working closely with the Arctic Council secretariat, building collaborations with other multilateral fora and enhancing the capacity of the permanent participants. And on that last point, I'd like to emphasize that for us, this unique and fundamental feature of the Arctic Council is one of our strengths and we have to continually work to ensure that we are supporting our permanent participant organizations. We also believe that the council needs to continuously evolve to meet changing needs, including by strengthening its work on the human dimension. I think we're all aware that life in the north brings with it a unique set of challenges ranging from high costs of goods and services to various environmental health and economic challenges. These of course can vary depending on where in the Arctic one is situated, but at a basic level, the people of the north are the same as people everywhere else. They need the opportunities to support themselves and their families in a healthy environment and they need respect, not just within their own countries, but also from the broader international community. Let me share with you a concrete example of what that means from a Canadian perspective. Last year, construction commenced on the last section of the Dempster Highway, which connects the Klondike region of the Yukon, which already has good connections to the rest of North America, to the deep water port of Tuktayaktuk. This project should enhance economic prosperity, not only in Canada's north, but also in Alaska and other regions. At the Arctic Council, this economic element is best seen in our facilitation of the creation of the Arctic Economic Council, the AEC. We have been clear that this work be undertaken with a view to the people of the north who needs sustainable economic development to create opportunities closer to home and to improve their quality of life. The business representatives of the Arctic States and permanent participants who founded the AEC in September in Akaluit have reflected this in their discussions establishing the body. They have committed to working with both business and government to enhance circumpolar trade and sustainable development and support business in the Arctic, including indigenous business. Now, some have said that Canada's focus on the human and economic dimensions of the Arctic Council's work is moving the Council away from its foundational scientific assessment and environment work. But we would respectfully disagree. In fact, we would argue it enhances it. The environment is of deep concern to the people of the north. They feel the effects of environmental problems most acutely and are determined to seek solutions that balance the many needs of the northern people. And our chairmanship initiatives to address black carbon and methane emissions to build a climate change adaptation portal to conserve migratory birds and to enhance scientific cooperation amongst the Arctic States were all designed to help find some of these solutions. Let me share another example of how work in the Arctic Council reflects our domestic priorities. This one relates to our commitment to Arctic science. Just last month, the Prime Minister broke ground on the new Canadian High Arctic Research Station and Cambridge Brain Nunavut, which will provide a world class research facility for Canadian and international scientists with a view to improving the economic opportunities, environmental stewardship and quality of life of people throughout the Arctic region. As we're getting close to the end of our term as chair, we are beginning to turn our attention to the transition to the US chairmanship. We are working with our American counterparts to determine which of our priority initiatives will be wrapped up and which may be incorporated into US priorities or ongoing Arctic Council work. We plan to meet on a regular basis over the coming months as we work to ensure a smooth transition process. Before concluding, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that current Canada US cooperation regarding the Arctic Council follows the long line of Arctic cooperation between our two countries. Only months after Pearl Harbor, Canada and the US reached an agreement to build a highway over a thousand miles long through Canada's dense wilderness to Alaska, through Canada's dense wilderness to Alaska in order to shore up the continent's defences. This highway has contributed significantly to the economic growth of Canada's Western Arctic. On the other side of the Canadian Arctic, a Callawit, which is the capital of Nunavut and as you just heard, the location of next year's ministerial, was a principal staging point for the US Air Force and an alternative landing site for the space shuttle. When faced with a different threat, Canada and the US, along with Denmark and Iceland, cooperated in building the due line. After September 11th, cooperation excelled between our two countries, notably along the Alaska Yukon border, where we worked to ensure the continued free flow of people and goods. While the preoccupations driving Arctic cooperation change over time, the need for cooperation does not. We are looking forward to a successful process leading to the ministerial and throughout the US chairmanship. We look forward to working with our American friends as well as our other Arctic Council partners in this process. Thank you. Sue, thank you so much. I love that consensus cooperation continuity. That's a title of a think tank report. I love it. I may have to steal that. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your comments. I think it's absolutely perfect. We can now turn to permanent participants in their view of how the Arctic Council has evolved through the Canadian chairmanship. So, Ms. Yuziak, we are delighted that you are here. Please. Thank you. I'd like to thank the organizers for arranging this event in beautiful Washington and for me to participate. I'm Yuziak. Thank you. I think you've pronounced it pretty well. Oh, God bless you. You're a very generous and kind. And I'm from Nurewood as well. Vince put it perfectly. When he spoke, I'm from the heart of Canada's North, from from the center of the universe. That works too. And like Vince, I'm fairly new to the job. I was just appointed in July when we had our General Assembly in Inuvik. So, like the admiral that was just appointed and Vince, who is also new, I'm very new as well. Are international people, ICC International in the Circular Polar Council International represents more than 150,000 Inuit in Chicago, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Our relationship at ICC is based on a common culture and language. Conferences like this are very good opportunities for me to hear from people who have been close to the work of the council over the past few years. ICC has been very fortunate that a lot of our advisors at the international and country level have continued to be involved, like Terry Fedges here in the room. He was an advisor to Shilawa Cluchier and he still works with the file with other permanent participants. I'm especially pleased to have a chance to meet some of the American team who will very soon be taking the leadership of the council. Even though I'm new to the Arctic Council, I'm not new to Arctic issues affecting Inuit, just like you're not new to Arctic issues with your previous work. My comments today are therefore not intended to review and analyze the Arctic Council. I want to focus more on matters of importance to Inuit into the future, including our role in the Arctic Council. The Arctic today is experiencing unprecedented attention, just like Sue was saying and what Vince was saying this morning. As we face unprecedented globalization, I often think about how Inuit envisioned the Arctic in 2020, 2050 and beyond. Of course, this is why ICC was established and created. To a lot of people, the Arctic is a remote and empty place. Many interested parties are trying to design new ways to govern the Arctic, new ways to extract its wealth and new ways to travel through the region. Inuit gives the Arctic a human face, but we constantly have to remind the world that we are here or there. We have our own systems of governance already. Inuit in Alaska, Canada and Greenland have negotiated our respective with our respective national governments to secure a range of political, social and economic rights. Things have not progressed as much in Chicago, as we all know. In any case, we don't see a governance vacuum in the Arctic. In the Arctic Council, there's a lot of work going on. Working groups and task forces are thinking about issues like climate change, marine transportation, non-renewable resource development, trans-boundary pollution and Arctic biodiversity. As Inuit, we do not think about these issues in a detached scientific way. These issues of many others affect us day to day. We look at these issues from the perspective of what impact they will have on our language, our culture, our traditions and on the future of our children and communities. In order for us to contribute to the sustainable development of our communities, we need to ensure a healthier housed and experienced Inuit labor force. The potential of a diversified Arctic economy in non-renewable and renewable resource development must be matched by educated and trained Inuit. And it is critically important that Inuit are grounded by our culture and our respect for the lands and waters where we live. I think this represents a very different perspective than the one taken by many of the government officials and scientists who participate in Arctic Council activities. So now let me say a few things about my impressions of Canada's chairmanship of the Arctic Council so far. The theme of Canada's chairmanship program is development for the people of the north. And Mr. Aglucaka stressed that Canada wants to put the interests of northerners first. And we like Vincent and Susan and Peter have said we're very fortunate to have Leona at the table. Her being from Nunavut from a small town, she's from Joe Haven, but we have to remember that she won't be there forever, right? Governments do change. Inuit needs don't change. So please keep that in mind. From the perspective of Inuit, as Susan was saying, it was good to hear her say that she recognized the resource challenges that we have as permanent participants and as ICC in our respective countries and as an international organization. There's an almost overwhelming amount of important work going on in the Arctic Council on top of the other things that ICC does as well. With our limited resources, we struggle to keep up. We don't currently have the capacity to attend and contribute in all working groups and activities as much as we would like. So we are watching to see if there is substantial progress on issues like the permanent participant capacity building workshop that will be taking place in yellow life in October. In my view, it is critically important that ICC continues to play a strong role in forums like the Arctic Council. As an organization, ICC predates the Arctic Council by about 20 years. In the 1970s, our Inuit leadership saw the need for us to come together to deal with exactly the kinds of challenges we are facing today. But as Inuit, we have always understood that changing the Arctic brings opportunities as well as challenges. As the International Chair of ICC, it is my duty to stand up for sustainable Inuit communities with organizational capacity. Inuit have always been incredibly resistant, resilient, and capable of adapting to challenging environments and successive governments. With Canada's work into the Arctic Council and the program of development for the people of the North, I'd like to suggest that America carry that even further and say development with the people of the North and development by the people of the North. Thank you. Thank you so much for those very important comments. Sasha, please. Thank you, organizers for putting together this meeting which definitely was discussed for a long time and it's really nice to see the opportunities that back-to-back chairmanships are coming together to discuss issues what happened before and what are the achievements but also to be prepared for the next. And we're definitely even happier will be to see here in Finland for the next period. That's also great to be at the meeting which brings together Canada and US as my first really CIS experience in the Arctic was from offshore Prudabay and then offshore Eglulik so and that was really amazing places to visit and also to be there and work there. We also very much appreciate opportunities that WWF is engaged and invited to be part of this meeting as I can see that at least among speakers we are the only observer. I invited to speak here and definitely observers and I think that my reflections will be mostly from the point of view of observer and WWF is observer for many years from the very beginning of the Arctic Council and I hope that we are pretty constructive observer making our contribution to the work of the Arctic Council using of course one of our advantage. WWF is an Arctic organization so we have our offices and our representation in every Arctic state and that's actually helping us to engage expertise, engage science and engage thinking and engage pilots and field projects from all countries. So Michael was asking about engagement of Russia so that definitely being crushing myself I can say also that our presence in Russia which is very strong is actually very much also ensuring that some elements of work within the Arctic Council will continue practically in a very active way. I also like to draw your attention probably some of you saw our publication that's again about observers that's about new observers the new country observers and again we believe that what was done already during the Canadian chairmanship can definitely be continued and maybe strengthened during American chairmanship the meaningful engagement of observers into the work of the Arctic Council not just letting them sit around SAO meeting observe and listen but actually engage them and help them to do their contribution through the working groups do the science do the expertise and bringing to the Arctic Council table and that's required some work from Arctic States it's not just happening that observers will do themselves they need some kind of infrastructure helping them to do that we are very much interested in seeing the Arctic Council strong and we believe that Canadian chairmanship did quite a lot in this direction definitely secretariat was established during the Swedish chairmanship but the real work of the secretariat the real start of it was under Canadian chairmanship and we see that secretariat is pretty strong and delivering a lot of good results what we see the next step for that that will be giving Arctic Council secretariat maybe more functions for example coordination functions between working groups we know that there are many cross cutting topics for example oil and gas ecosystem based management which are treated by different working groups in a different way and there is no really coordination in between so whether it's a specifically work for the Arctic Council secretariat to do this kind of job reporting functions reporting functions on how Arctic Council is doing but not also only Arctic Council is doing how Arctic States are doing and that's again can be the function for the secretary and that's another point of strengthening Arctic Council we definitely very much welcome the approach of Canadian chairmanship developing the tracking tool for projects happening in the Arctic Council but we definitely also believe that U.S. chairmanship can bring it even further and think about monitoring and reporting of what Arctic States really do to make all recommendations of the Arctic Council being implemented on the ground so it's not only about the Arctic Council itself and delivery on projects of the Arctic Council it's also the delivery of nations Arctic nations in their national work I think extremely important work is continued to help to build capacity of permanent participants and we also very well very much welcome activities of Canadian chairmanship including the upcoming workshop in yellow knife before the SAO meeting on permanent participants capacity from our side we are working currently closely with indigenous people secretariat developing the idea of permanent participants capacity fund which again I hope that Arctic States as well as other observers will be supporting and definitely few next steps can be discussed in terms of strengthening the Arctic Council where from our perspective the work is not enough despite the fact that this is a language of the current declaration that's definitely about activities of the Arctic Council in relation to other international fora bringing the Arctic issues to those for us but also using those fora to bring forward Arctic agenda and maybe thinking about the common positions and common ground of Arctic States towards specific elements and one of them is obviously polo code for example it was fantastic that I more president was speaking at the SAO meeting but I think that could be much more done to really work at national level to make code happen in practice well conservation agenda definitely being from WWF that's one of the issue where we are most interested and for us such elements like ABA the Arctic biodiversity assessment assessment is fantastic what we really welcome that this assessment resulted in policy recommendations and what we really welcome that currently and we also very much support this move within the Arctic Council from science to practice from scientific reports which are extremely important and we definitely welcome them but from those reports to implementation to making something on the ground to make the real projects and achieve something in every Arctic state and that's why for I believe successful conference in a colloid where the implementation plan for Arctic biodiversity assessment supposed to be accepted and adopted that's American chairmanship will take a lead in a rigorous and strong implementation of this plan with a very clear time frame and timeline and concrete deliverables Arctic marine strategic plan extremely important delivery of Canadian chairmanship and again the key point that this plan need to be implemented this plan need to have a strong schedule with again concrete deliverables until 2025 and also definitely not only for one chairmanship as that can be a very good basis for working further for the long-term ideas as actually Mr. Rackby said that the long-term vision long-term thinking is important and we believe that Arctic marine strategic plan exactly set up this opportunity but marine strategic plan is not pain plan and that's another important issue which we believe that chairmanship can place significant role ensuring that all working groups work together because that's Arctic Council plan not pain plan not one working group plan framework for marine protected areas which very much coincide with recommendations from Arctic biodiversity assessment as related to development of pan Arctic ecological network and that's again where I believe that based on the good results coming from the work of Canadian chairmanship US chairmanship can really take elite and make it happen few more things as I think important deliverables from the current chairmanship but again the potential step forward and the leadership for US chairmanship climate change so the work on black carbon and developing the strong framework for black carbon is extremely important but also if we read most of Arctic Council declarations every time in the declarations there is a language about importance of climate change and mitigation measures so what is the next step how Arctic Council can play really a role to lead on climate change discussions within the Arctic but also broader definitely within international context as well and bringing Arctic experience bringing actually Arctic issue because we all know that Arctic is melting or warming faster than any other part of the planet so what Arctic Council can do there and finally development double F is not anti-development organization at all so we absolutely like to see development but the key issue for us currently looking at the work of the Arctic Council during the last cycle of 16 years we unfortunately see that Arctic Council has no vision for the Arctic Arctic Council and eight Arctic states they do not know how Arctic should look like in 2050 for example and working through two years period that's nice that now we have discussion for a longer term but usually it's two years two years two years and where we go with those two years that's unclear so we very much believe and we very much expect from US chairmanship that this issue of developing the common vision developing the long-term framework for the Arctic Council work that will be one of us initiatives to bring to the table and ask other partners to work together to develop this vision and then basically make a long-term plan for the Arctic Council where they like to be together with permanent participants together with other interested partners and in this sense I think that creation of Arctic Economic Council which in principle we very much support because we're very much supportive of engagement of business into Arctic Council work but I think that many in this room knows that WWF was pretty critical about Arctic Economic Council because of unclearity around transparency because unclearity around safeguards which really will help this Arctic Council economic council to be more in line with stewardship and sustainability agenda and environmental issues the participation in this Council of say observers or participation of civil society so there are many issues which we believe can be settled through the work of the Arctic Economic Council which in our mind if properly designed and will actually develop independently but with an eye of the Arctic Council can be important and useful but also can be detrimental and that's up to I think Arctic States and Arctic Council to ensure that that will go the right way so thank you very much and I hope and really believe that the full flame of the Church giving from Canada to US will be even stronger and actually will pass on next years and go on thank you Sasha thank you there was so much content in there and I think we're going to be unpacking that throughout the day particularly as we look towards the future Dr. Sharon will wind it up with you and then we'll turn to a conversation thank you very much first of all I'd just like to start by saying that I come with a bit of a warning because first of all I'm an academic but also I live in the south even though I come from Winnipeg which is known for its cold climate I don't actually live in the north and so for both of those reasons I'm very much an outsider and so that has to be kept in mind and the other warning is for all of you be careful when you answer emails from John Higginbottom in the late afternoon because you could end up here so that's that's the warning for all of you so what I was asked to do was sort of do an overview of Canada's priorities for its chair ship how we did and then what does this mean really for Canada and potentially for the Arctic Council and for the US so we've heard a lot about Canada's priorities so I'm not actually going to review those we've heard from Mr. Rigby and Ms. Harper and she certainly outlined in detail both the context for Canada's Arctic priorities and what it was we wanted to do and the focus of course was on the people of the north but before we look at how we actually did we need to remind ourselves of some of the challenges that the Arctic Council has it is first and foremost a very soft legal body in that it cannot actually make binding decisions except for among the eight Arctic States so it doesn't have that power of enforcement that other organizations may have the other thing we should keep in mind is that the Arctic is continuing to be a zone of cooperation but that wasn't always an assured case and it's something that always has to be nurtured and watched very very carefully and there are of course outside events which Dr. Byers asked of Mr. Rigby you know what happens when we have an aggressive Russia what is going to be the impact for the Arctic Council but there are all sorts of events going on in the world that could reach inside the Arctic Council the next is that we have now 32 observers and 14 Arctic States and permanent participants so we have more than a two to one ratio of observers to members and permanent participants and that presents challenges as well and finally there's always this inclusive exclusive debate that we have when it comes to the Arctic Council because it is a quasi international organization that's focused around an ocean so it's very much of a regional nature but many of the issues that they're tackling like climate change are really happening universally and so there's always that debate about whether or not Arctic Council should assume sole sort of leadership on particular issues or are we harming ourselves by making it a regional issue should we again focus it more universally so those are just things to sort of ponder we've had a number of notable achievements for the Arctic Council many of them predated Canada's chair ship but Canada was certainly part and parcel of these achievements and the Arctic Economic Council is really sort of the flagship achievement of this chair ship and achieving that in less than two years is quite a feat and should be noted in terms though of how Canada did one of the comments that has been made is that Canada's recent two years has really just been a placeholder we haven't really seen the sort of events or processes or agreements that came out of for example the six years when the Nordic countries were in charge now on the one hand we haven't quite finished our two years so it may be premature to sort of make a diagnosis on the other hand we can't always expect the Arctic Council to be doing having agreements and things like that sometimes we do need we do plateau for a variety of reasons and we'll maybe look at that the another comment has been that Canada who was instrumental in creating the Arctic Council from the Finnish initiative the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy and specifically said that in addition to environmental protection we need to add sustainable development and now all of a sudden it seems that we've done a shift to the economic side of things so some people are sort of raising an eyebrow and saying what does this all mean in the grand scheme of things well it's really only academics that tend to assume that these issues are exclusive many of the economic issues in fact will impact on sustainable development and will impact on environmental protection so maybe the eyebrows don't have to go up so far however it's always good to remind ourselves of what were the two founding pillars of the Arctic Council and the idea was that they would always be on par with each other that one wouldn't take precedent over the other another issue that is not unique to the Canadian chairship will not be unique to the U.S. chairship is this funding issue it is a perennial problem David Vanderswag wrote about it nearly 10 years ago that this is going to be the potential undoing of the Arctic Council because it's dependent on member states to provide funds it's dependent on observer states to provide funds and we're in an age of austerity and so some of the first sort of funding opportunities are with the Arctic it's easily overlooked so we always have to be the cheerleaders saying that this is important that we continue to do this but I think one of the factors that isn't mentioned because it doesn't it isn't an agreement it isn't something we can all wave and say look what we did the fact that the Arctic Council given the geopolitical situations that we have faced the fact that it is still together and functioning is an incredible achievement and it's an achievement of everybody on the Arctic Council but Canada was was wise to keep a cooler head and not to turn this into a political football so I'm I'm grateful for that now areas that Canada and others can pursue there is certainly the issue of things like fisheries management I'm no expert but I understand some stocks are starting to move northward and and so people are asking for some controls on that area I think the coastal states are having sort of quiet conversations but we don't want to get into that situation where we have the the Arctic Five versus everybody else in the Arctic Council the Arctic Council works best when it stays and hangs together so let's not make that mistake of of doing the the Arctic Five because especially that that name has a has a negative connotation now we need I think more support for a number of agreements that are outside of the Arctic Council but certainly will impact the Arctic one is the Minimata Convention and again David Wanderzweig is is the expert here but correct me if I'm wrong David but I think the U.S. is the only state to have actually ratified that convention is that not the case few more but anyways that's a case where we know that mercury contamination has a particular impact on the Arctic and that's something that the Arctic Council could be championing next we have a fissure among some of the members of the Arctic Council vis-a-vis what to do with climate change some want to make it a particular focus others would sort of let's not talk about that right now so that that's a reality that we're just going to have to face and deal with next there's the need now that we have some of these agreements to actually put live exercises in place so how does the search and rescue agreement actually work in the real world beyond tabletop exercises it's important that we do work together on this but again this is where the funding issue comes up this is incredibly expensive and countries have lots of priorities finally there the other problem that we have and it's going to be a challenge for the U.S. is that across the Arctic different states have different levels of infrastructure particular national interests that they would like to champion different population levels and the like and so that's something that we have to keep in mind and there's always that desire to put sort of a national flavor on the Arctic Chairship but does that in fact is that in the best interest of the Arctic Council in general so I think for the future of the Arctic Council we may be at a tipping point and I'm not trying to be alarmist here but it is something we need to give thought to the fact that we have this imbalance of observers to member states and permanent participants certainly makes it harder for the permanent participants to be heard and whether or not the observers will continue to be happy with simply being observers is a question we need to ask next the national priorities of state members they're diverse but so far they've not been discordant and that is part of the job of the chair is making sure that there is that purpose of mind when it comes to the Arctic Council the question I have is though have we have the low hanging fruit issues been tackled and now this is why we're seeing a particular plateau in the work of the Arctic Council and maybe this is why this Canadian chair ship hasn't had as many agreements come out of it that's because we're starting to get into the issues of core national interests that are going to be very intractable and difficult to deal with so we may now see in the second term of chair ships a lot more requirement to be negotiators we need to temper our enthusiasm as well I think that one of the things that we never intended was for the Arctic Council to become a UN-like agency and to be a huge body because it makes decision making harder but also that the member states particularly like the decision making priority that they have we have to always keep in mind that the permanent participants absolutely must be included in these decisions but that's something that we have to think about and finally if for some reason Russia is kicked out if for that matter if any of the members decide to leave the Arctic Council I think the continuation of the Arctic Council will definitely be up for debate Russia in particular because it is such a large Arctic player on many fronts so those were my thoughts thank you very much thank you so much rich rich content and I'm going to do lightning question round because we only have a few minutes and I want us to stay on on schedule so I'm going to ask two quick questions to all of our participants and I'm hoping we can squeak one question Brooks Yeager you get the question one from our audience and then I promise in the lunch time I'm sure everyone can have lots of thoughtful conversation so for all the panelists if you could give and would offer one piece of advice to Mr. Rigby and Admiral Papp on the chairmanship what would that one piece of advice be on the chair on their respective chairmanship and then my second question it seems sort of a theme that's running through all the presentations does the Arctic Council right now as it's currently composed have the urgency to tackle the many questions does it have the accountability for both the organization but also members observers do we have the tools when the Arctic Council was created in 1996 it was designed for a particular moment and a particular function has that function dramatically changed do we have to rethink it or are we just talking about making some minor modifications to how the working groups and how it does so I just love your quick reflections on that so we'll go quickly and then Mr. Yeager we'll let you have your question and then we'll take an extremely quick bake and we welcome Admiral Papp so Premier why don't you what piece of advice would you offer the Canadian government and the American government on their chairmanship your moment thank you very much as you know you know what is 85 percent unique the population there's lots of unique there and one piece of advice I'd like to offer is that whatever happens in Arctic Council has to be focused on the wellness of the Arctic Council members especially the inhabitants of the Arctic and having said that is one of the key critical things that as an organization or the Arctic Council there has to be more dialogue with the people that inhabit the Arctic and of course the council members thank you I think you take a pass Sue but go ahead so I'm advising my boss is that it okay I would say the one piece of advice is that we try to focus there's so much going on it's such a hot area everybody wants to do everything and I think that's what we've been trying to do and inevitably you will run into criticism if you do implementation rather than more agreements or vice versa but we need to focus we do not have infinite resources neither the states or the PPs we need this secondly I think this idea of do we have urgency for rethinking I'm a Canadian and incrementalist I think we are trying to rethink every time that's why I like the two-year system we go to a continual rethinking in our terms checking it up the political level I think that is the way to proceed but yes we need to continually rethink it's an evolving situation I think some of those some of that will be answered by the workshops that are happening in young life and the limited resources that we have as permanent participants but to take that advice for more effective and more efficient forward-looking participation of permanent participants I think some of that will be answered by the the workshop and build upon what works I think at the community level at the territorial level at the international level my remarks alluded to the fact that when we work with successive governments their priorities change and unique needs and challenges don't change so build on what works at the community and up to the international level I'd like to add to that by adding on to what she was saying about the focus of non-renewable resource development is really strong right now when at the community level we do need to build up what we have at the community for renewable resource development let's build up our community so that they could market sealskins let's build up our community so that they could build upon their arts and crafts industry you know something that works at the community level great thank you Sasha I think that again from my perspective fully agree with what Susan said we need focus and definitely we need diversification it's not only about extractives what we do in the Arctic so that's why again coming back we can have focus only if we know what we like to do in the long term and we also can think about different opportunities in the Arctic different opportunities for people in the Arctic only if we have this kind of vision so the steel we believe until this vision is in place focus will be a challenge but also talking meaningfully about opportunities outside extractives also will be pretty difficult so that's I believe what we need to do pretty urgently now thank you I'm gonna be selfish one of the things I would like to see and congratulate the secretariat on putting making more information available but I think you know just communication about what the Arctic Council does what they're thinking about doing and having that information available because as we can see in this room there are lots of people interested but if it's not posted anywhere and it's such a closed shop this thing called the Arctic Council that I think would help and go a long way to making decisions Mr. Yeaker if you have a microphone and Brooks we gotta keep it super super short yes thank you I'm Brooks Yeager with Birdwall Strategies formerly of the State Department and have worked for quite some time with the Council with a lot of pleasure this is a question about the role of the permanent participants they have a privileged role justly so in the Council is this was a major innovation and should be conserved and magnified amplified there was a very delicate moment during the Swedish chairmanship when Russia the Russian government moved aggressively to take control of the Russian Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the North RYPON which is the Russian representative it represents all the Russian Indigenous communities but it can only do so if it's elected by those Indigenous communities and that is no longer a clear reality so question number one is how do we as a Council conserve and protect the role of the Indigenous community representatives and second is there a need to involve local governments of the North the way the Barrett's Council does to more effectively represent the interests not just of the Indigenous people who are 700,000 of the 4 million people of the North but of all the people of the North Brooke's great question Seek you ask I think we'll have you take that question maybe Premier you'd like to also reflect Thank you very much that's a very difficult question but when you when a politician is put into the Arctic Council at times it falls in right in in line with their priorities within their respective government and I see that as a plus because most politicians are well known throughout the circumpolar membership and it creates for more collaborative approaches on the discussions that are taking place but I can't really comment on some of the issues that the first question that you brought up it's a very difficult question I'm sure the people at the higher levels are taking a good hard look at that thank you I know I think I'll just go back to what how Vince answered that that question earlier but and add that we just a bunch of us came back just came back from New York from the United Nations or a conference on Indigenous peoples where we talked about our Indigenous rights and the outcome document I think that has big aspirations that we can build on and I hope that all the countries care through with the outcome document eventually sooner rather than later and what was the second was there a second question I can't okay yeah I can't I will comment on the local governments because I represent unique organizations and for any organizations build on what works ICC has been working for a long time so build on what we have done we do have local affiliates that we work with and we need to have I'll put a picture for policy development with any participation and open communication we don't have our own TV station we don't have our own local radio station so that at the local level could be involved in the development of policy we're only involved at the tail end of it when it's introduced and it's too much of a late draft by then thank you thank you sir you want to have just a quick comment on that just on the question of local government I think just to cite three examples kingdom of Denmark all has representatives from Greenland Denmark and Faroe Islands Canada has the territorial governments is part of its delegation ICC usually has at least three representatives from Greenland and Alaska and Canada and I would say several of the other PP organizations have subgroups based on different organizational responsibilities so we do already have that in many cases but it is left to each of the 14 to decide what's appropriate for them fantastic well please join me in thanking our panelists for a terrific discussion all right don't go away we're going to just switch up here a bit and then we will welcome Admiral Papp to the podium ever State Department special representative for the Arctic this was a position that Secretary John Kerry announced in March many of us who follow the Arctic were holding our breath waiting for this announcement and when it emerged we were absolutely delighted Admiral Papp is so well known as the 24th Commodant of the U.S. Coast Guard and I have to say I had the very distinct privilege of hosting Admiral Papp when he unveiled the Coast Guard's Arctic strategy in May of 2013 we started our conversation our Arctic dialogue there and it is such a great privilege that now in a new role in a new suit put his civilian clothes on now that he can continue to serve serve his country in such a distinguished way there are many things I admire about Admiral Papp but as he was talking about the Arctic when he was wearing his Coast Guard Commodant hat he always said it is important that the the United States think of the Arctic as a national imperative and he used our historic knowledge and our understanding of when we were constructing that due line we had a national purpose we had a national mission and we have to think of the Arctic today as a new mission and a new purpose and it has to be the collective the nation behind that so I know he's going to provide that great vigor to this new role and we are absolutely delighted that he has selected CSIS to be the first place where he offers his first public comments as U.S. Special Representative to the Arctic so without further ado please join me in welcoming Admiral Bob Papp Well good morning everyone Heather you've delivered just about half my speech now but that's okay I can I can add more as I go along I've never lost for words and yes new title new new uniform and what it brought to mind I was actually wearing this suit last week when I went to New York the General Assembly we had a short meeting up there and I traveled by train and my friends know that I love telling them about humbling experiences so whenever you get a title or a new job you know your head gets a little full and then for me there's always some event that happens that seems to put you back on earth that happened for me on the train the train broke down just outside of Washington and we loaded eight car loads of people into a five car train that was already full so I stood all the way to New York and at a certain point I took off my jacket and laid it up on the rack and I did have the vest on and I did have my watch fob hanging out and perhaps I looked like somebody else because this gentleman came up to me and said conductor and I was actually able to answer his question too which is multi-purpose it is good to be back at CSIS I was going to mention that yes about a year and a half ago we introduced the Coast Guard Arctic strategy with Heather and me on a stage in another location and what a grand venue you have now I was thrilled that day I'm even more thrilled to be here today as Secretary Kerry's special representative I'm also proud to be here today with the team from the State Department I'm proud to be a part of that team Ambassador David Bolton has been leading efforts before my introduction to the job most of the team is here today with the exception of Julie Gorley our senior Arctic official who is a little under the weather but we've been putting together a very good team and we were very pleased to meet yesterday with Vince Rigby and Sue Harper and we appreciate the help that they're giving us I also see some of my old team here today too in Coast Guard Blue led by the Vice Commandant Vice Admiral Peter Neffinger who in reality was a primary author on that Arctic strategy that we announced that day it was a teamwork event but he had the leadership on that and I appreciate it and I'm delighted to see him in his new job as the Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard so I have new shipmates at the State Department I have old shipmates here that are here today the old shipmates who know me know I can't give a speech without telling a sea story or giving a little bit of history and I wouldn't want to disappoint anybody so I'm going to do a little bit of both so the sea story is an actual sea story and hopefully the sea story and the history will put things into context a little bit for what we're trying to do here today in 1996 I had the privilege as the captain of our training ship Eagle to take Eagle to St. Petersburg Russia for the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy and it was a grand event 117 tall ships gathered in St. Petersburg and there was a tremendous dinner that was put on for all the captains at the Palace of Catherine the Great what an experience but an even better experience was later that evening when a bunch of the captains got together in the Great Cabin of Asgard II which is Ireland's training ship we gathered together for some professional development and a few adult beverages so as the evening progressed at a certain point I'm a people watcher I sat back and I just observed all that was going on in the Great Cabin there were people speaking Russian Danish, German, Spanish probably at least a dozen different languages but as I sat there and looked around the table in spite of the multiple languages everybody seemed to understand each other and I think that's to be expected because they were all sailors they're formed in the same crucible of challenges of the sea they have a love for the sea training sailors to take on the challenges of the sea so we understood each other so the next day I was interviewed by BBC by the by the Winter Palace and I reflected upon the evening before and the reporter said well what did you gain from that and I said well what I gained from it was if everyone in the world was a sailor we could probably solve all the world's problems and parochially I felt that way but as I've matured and grown and moved from job to job what I've learned is that there are an awful lot of problem solvers in the world and I've grown a particular respect for diplomats and statesmen who attempt to solve the problems of the world which brings me to the history lesson one of the heroes that I have is Admiral Arleigh Burke United States Navy he was the chief of he was first of all a world war two hero recipient of the Navy Cross and he also was the chief of naval operations under President Eisenhower and President Kennedy retiring in 1962 and then along with Ambassador David Abshire founding CSIS so you had this Admiral who when he died had left instructions that the only thing to go on his gravestone was the word sailor so here was a guy who took pride in being a sailor but he also fully understood that it takes many views it takes many people it takes many hands working the problems of the world and I think that played into the development of CSIS that combination of operational experience warrior combined with diplomacy and statesmanship that makes this institution so great so that's why it's good to be here today because CSIS has been devoted to these issues over the years it brings people of many views together to take on the challenges and that's what we are doing today so I welcome all the members of the executive branch that are here today members of congress and congressional staffs the representatives from the international community our Alaska delegation representative here and senator maguire I haven't seen her yet today but I know she's here somewhere so we welcome all of you as well as those from the international community those from our fellow arctic nations the permanent participants and those here from other countries that are simply interested in the Arctic I'd like to once again say a special thank you to Vincent Rigby and Susan Harper we had a great session at the State Department yesterday I learned a lot and I will continue to learn from the two of you we appreciate your cooperation your candor and we look forward to working together we had a great evening at the Canadian Embassy thanks for that as well where we also had a few adult beverages and told a few stories but it was a great evening and as I said we look forward to working with you so we just heard from our friends about the great work in which the Arctic Council has been engaged over the last two years during their chairmanship and I want to thank Canada for its leadership during this time they've set a great example for us and we look forward to continuing the important work of the Arctic Council during our tenure in the chair we fully support the emphasis Canada has placed on a number of key arctic issues during its chairmanship such as safe shipping and improved economic and living conditions for arctic inhabitants we plan to pursue those projects as well and they will be related to other projects that we're doing in our chairmanship I was particularly taken by Sue Hopper's comments this morning on the due line and the Alcan Highway and Heather brought that up as well because one of the things I've been struggling with and Dave Baltin knows this as well as we've approached this opportunity to inspire the citizens of the United States to become more involved and more interested in the Arctic what is the national imperative? I haven't answered that question yet and I've talked to an awful lot of people and people have made suggestions but we haven't nailed that one key issue yet that makes this a national imperative the due line was a national imperative because President Eisenhower and other leaders said it would be the Alcan Highway was a national imperative for defense reasons as well they were both born of crises and then response to crises responses to threats do we really need a threat do we really need a crisis before we get engaged and become more involved in the Arctic and I say this only parochially as a U.S. citizen because I think the other nations get it we tend to be a little separated from our portion of the Arctic up in Alaska and it's easy to forget sometimes but I've had a long term interest in Alaska and the Arctic which I hope to talk about a little bit here this morning so why is it important to the United States? Well, if you look at a picture of the earth directly down on the North Pole the predominant feature is the Arctic Ocean and its ice cap it's a maritime environment the United States is a maritime nation and by virtue of our state of Alaska we are an Arctic nation as well and I believe the greatness of any maritime nation can be measured by its commitment to providing mariners safe and secure approaches to its shores and that a nation's prosperity is proportionate to how well it ensures the safe and secure and efficient movement of trade and commerce to and from its shores and that a really great nation will also ensure the environmental protection of the sea wherever human activity thrives governments have a responsibility to uphold the rule of law to ensure the safety and security of their people and to ensure environmentally responsible activity the Arctic is such a place and the eight nations the six permanent participants share in those responsibilities we all recognize the Arctic Ocean is changing from a solid expanse of inaccessible ice fields into a growing navigable sea attracting increased human activity the economic promise of oil and gas production in the Arctic is increasingly attractive as receding sea ice and improvements in drilling technology make offshore exploration and production more economically feasible than before the past several years have seen a relatively large increase in shipping traffic through the Bering Strait partly due to the increased traffic going along the northern sea route above Russia the Arctic's home to over 50,000 Americans many of whose ancestors learned to survive and thrive in the harsh Arctic environment thousands of years ago today a rapidly warming Arctic threatens traditional ways of life the Arctic is an area of great biodiversity roughly half the fish caught in the United States waters come from the exclusive economic zone off the coast of Alaska the Arctic is critical to the life cycles and migration patterns of millions of migratory birds each year recent effects of climate change are also changing these migration patterns threatening their survival glaciers and land-based ice sheets in the Arctic are also decreasing markedly over the past decades contributing to sea level rise permafrost is thawing posing a threat to infrastructure in the region and to the communities that rely upon it and unlike Las Vegas what happens in the Arctic does not just stay in the Arctic it affects the Arctic and its residents and it has the potential to affect all of us likewise what happens in the rest of the world does not just stay in the rest of the world it affects the Arctic black carbon emissions methane emissions are something that we need to work towards reducing because we need to do everything we can to mitigate the effects on the Arctic so why do we need to act now need to act now because I've seen the drastic changes that have occurred in the Arctic this has not just been over the last four years or five years in my my Coast Guard career it started out over 40 years ago as a young ensign PAP assigned to a Coast Guard cutter home ported in Adak, Alaska I crossed the Arctic Circle for the first time on July 7th, 1976 we were bound for Cotsabu through the Bering Strait we never made it through the Bering Strait it was choked with ice I had the opportunity to go up in a helicopter and look for ice leads we landed in Cotsabu and as we landed in Cotsabu as far as I could see there was fast ice on the shore out to the horizon fast forward 34 years later my first visit back to Alaska as the common on the Coast Guard we flew into Cotsabu at about 4,000 feet coming in and as far as I could see I saw no ice other than the ice cubes in my ice water beside my chair clearly there's a drastic change that we all understand and know about but it is increasingly becoming a problem while the effects of climate change are creating conditions more favorable to some types of economic activity in the Arctic there are also negative effects such as coastal erosion permafrost thaw and a reduction in access to subsistence hunting resources to name a few we must take care that economic activity in the Arctic is sustainable and does not exacerbate the effects of climate change and environmental degradation the Arctic region contains amazing diverse ecosystems but their systems that exist and the delicate balance having evolved over thousands of years to survive and thrive in such an extreme environment the rapid changes it's now experiencing jeopardize this delicate balance and it's our long-term national interest to protect our resources in the Arctic and the time for action is now now the several ways in which the international community can take action to protect our resources while at the same time responsibly developing them the following considerations should guide the work of the Arctic Council towards this end first we should ensure that economic development is conducted carefully and would do consideration to short and long-term environmental effects this is particularly true when it comes to managing the Arctic Ocean second we should look for ways to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change in the Arctic where possible while at the same time working to improve climate resilience and third we should assist the citizens in remote Arctic communities while adapting to these new and rapid changes that are having such a deleterious effect on their traditional ways of life the Arctic Council has done great work towards these ends over the past 20 years the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment and the ongoing adaptation actions for a changing Arctic are all great examples of groundbreaking studies that increased our understanding of the current challenges that we all face in the Arctic during our chairmanship of the Arctic Council we plan to continue this great work but also to focus more on developing and implementing solutions to these problems perhaps making the Council a little bit more forward-leaning and establishing actionable outcomes in 1996 the eight Arctic Nations came together to create the Arctic Council when they issued the Ottawa Declaration they all realized that cooperation amongst the Arctic States in close collaboration with the representatives of the Arctic Indigenous Peoples would be to the benefit of all and this is the spirit of our cooperation that continues today what happens in one area of the Arctic can have dramatic effects on the entire region the effects of climate change are being felt across the Arctic and creating similar challenges and opportunities in all Arctic States and even beyond addressing these challenges and opportunities together in a considered and well-thought-out manner is essential to the long-term success of the region that's why during the U.S. chairmanship of the Arctic Council we propose to focus on the Arctic as a region of shared responsibilities it really is one Arctic with shared opportunities challenges and responsibilities the specifics of the U.S. chairmanship program will not be formally presented until next month at the meeting of the senior Arctic officials in Yellowknife but what I can tell you today is that the proposed initiatives and projects under current consideration will fall into three broad categories first improving Arctic Ocean governance and stewardship second addressing the effects of climate change including mitigation and adaptation and third improving the economic and living conditions of Arctic residents so as it relates to the Arctic Ocean I think in my mind too the crowning achievements of the Arctic Council so far are the search and rescue agreement and the oil spill prevention and response agreement it's imperative that we now actively engage in exercising those agreements to fully understand the capabilities the competence and the resources not only available but the resources needed for the future to protect the Arctic Ocean and to protect the people that use it it's imperative as well to address the effects of climate change in the Arctic before it's too late communities such as Shishriff and Kevelina and several others are suffering such severe coastal erosion that they are literally being consumed by the sea I had a chance to go to Barrow once again this past summer and my first time climbing through the utilities tunnel that goes underneath the city about five miles of tunnel a storm this winter threatened to breach the utility system as the shoreline eroded throughout the winter and almost got into the pumping station that's close to the shore would be disastrous for the city there access to traditional sources of fresh water is now threatened in some communities and increased industrial uses of water now compete for the same limited resources we'll be proposing projects that increase energy security for remote Arctic communities by providing them with better and more secure access to renewable energy resources reducing their dependence on diesel generators while at the same time reducing emissions of black carbon in the Arctic we're looking at compiling a freshwater inventory and use assessment for the Arctic we'll also have a project that will promote research into innovative ways to solve residential fresh water and sewer challenges in remote Arctic settings which in turn will reduce diseases associated with lack of fresh water this is an important one as well improving telecommunications infrastructure in the Arctic because it'll make online tools for adaptation such as the Arctic adaptation exchange portal more accessible and useful it'll also make current telemedicine programs for remote villages more effective but back to the ocean we also wish to work with our fellow Arctic states for ways to improve coordination efforts in addressing the challenges of newly forming ice-free Arctic ocean areas in other areas of the world latoral states have come together to tackle similar problems sometimes creating what we call regional seas agreements we should look at whether similar arrangements would help us in the Arctic ocean what form this should take will need to be developed in close consultation with stakeholders here in the United States and around the Arctic region as I stated earlier one need only look at a map to see that the Arctic ocean and its adjacent adjacent waters cover the majority of the Arctic region recently Secretary Kerry a sailor himself convened the our ocean conference at the Department of State to raise awareness of the problems facing all oceans and to secure commitments from governments and other players in meeting those challenges the Arctic ocean though still relatively pristine is not immune to the problems that we see elsewhere in the world through our Arctic Council chairmanship we'll be looking for opportunities for meaningful collaboration on issues affecting the Arctic ocean so the United States is assuming the chairmanship of the Arctic Council at a critical time the Arctic Council has proven itself to be an effective and cooperative forum in which the Arctic States permanent participants and accredited observers can come together in effective ways for managing this precious resource but I continue to look for that national imperative to engage the people of the other 49 States of the United States to become interested to become concerned and to look at this as a priority for the United States and I think what we what I have finally concluded is perhaps it's not defense or security related perhaps rather than the national imperative what we have here is a moral imperative we all have a responsibility an obligation to protect this area of our earth for future progress for the people that live there and to preserve this wonderful asset that we have here so in conclusion I turn to one more sailor here that has always provided me inspiration you might have heard his name before John F. Kennedy you know he uh he also I used him as an example of a national imperative as well we had another crisis Sputnik and back in 1963 we got definitely involved in the space race as president Kennedy set a goal for us in a speech at rice university of going to the moon he said we choose to go to the moon he had other distractions as we all know there were other things going on in the world but he set the bar high he made it a national imperative and he said in that speech that setting that goal would serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills we need to go to the Arctic because coordinating together and working together will organize the best of our energies and skills working together we can do this and if I can indulge myself one more sailor thing President Kennedy also in 1963 wrote a letter in 1964 we were going to host the first operation sail in New York Harbor and he unfortunately passed before operations sail occurred but he wrote a beautiful letter and I'm not going to repeat the entire thing but in the letter and he gives credit to sailing and the sea for developing him as an individual and giving him his sense of optimism and knowing that we can take on challenges and in there when he wrote of operational sail he said the sight of so many ships gathered from the distant corners of the world should remind us that strong disciplined and ventureson men and women can still find their way safely across uncertain and stormy seas Kennedy always spoke literally and figuratively so he was literally talking about those sailors coming across those uncertain and stormy seas but I think he looked at those characteristics at those that would take on the future challenges metaphorically of uncertain and stormy seas and it's really one of my favorite phrases that I've used for a long time in approaching the Arctic we approach uncertain and stormy seas but working together we can accomplish great things and I look forward to our work as the United States takes over the chairmanship from our great friends from Canada and thank you for having me here this morning and I'd be delighted to take a few questions if I have time Heather tells me I have time for one question roll the dice yes sir in the back okay thank you of course technologies we are not in the Arctic we have technologies my name is Andrey Sitov I'm a Russian reporter here in Washington D.C. I wanted to ask you a question to follow up on what you described as your experience in St. Petersburg and to what our Canadian chairmanship described this morning as their willingness to go on with a constructive and productive cooperation with Russia what are your plans in this regard and what have been so far your experiences with the Russians aside from the adult beverages thank you you know I never liked vodka until I went to St. Petersburg and got the real stuff people are going to think that think the wrong things of me here all these adult beverage stories look we work with Russia now we expect to continue to work with Russia Ambassador Balton just came back from Vladivostok where he worked on a fisheries agreement the command on of the Coast Guard was just out in San Francisco two weeks ago for the North Pacific Coast Guard form and which Russia took part and he met with his counterpart and in general as a sailor I've learned to be a pretty optimistic guy even in the worst of storms at some point it's going to get better I anticipate it will get better we will continue working with the Russians and we really need them as a part of the Arctic Council as everybody has noted here for it to be effective thanks for the question