 Ladies and gentlemen, if you will please take your seats, we will begin. You know when the room is buzzing like this, we are seeing a lot of colleagues and catching up so I take that as a very good sign. Let me begin by saying a hearty good morning and welcome to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. My name is Heather Conley. I'm Senior Vice President here at CSIS and I direct our Europe, Eurasia and of course our Arctic Research here. We are so delighted to be in partnership with the Center for International Governance and Innovation for today's conference on the Arctic Council. But before I begin I have to make one very important clarification for my Canadian guests. We are the other CSIS because in Canada CSIS stands for the Canadian Security Intelligence Services and the first time I went to Ottawa to lecture on the Arctic and I introduced myself as Heather Conley from CSIS, oh I got this look and I'm like what did something happen that we did until they clarified that for me, I'm sure some of you did a double take on the invitation but we are delighted that you are here. I have to also confess to you that I have been looking forward to this discussion for a very long time. We have an incredible list of speakers for you today and as I mentioned looking around this room I see so many friends, so many colleagues who have made me so smart or at least trying to get smart on the Arctic and I couldn't be more grateful that they are taking time out of very busy schedules and traveling very long distances to be with us today. Five years ago we held our first Arctic conference at CSIS not in this beautiful building but in our old building and I would say about maybe 80 people came and we thought wow this is a great turnout. We've had almost 200 RSVPs for this. We have an incredible audience that's watching this internationally by live streaming. I think this is a really encouraging sign that the Arctic at last is finding its place on the American foreign policy agenda and I just as a note I am so pleased we have such an incredibly strong delegation from Alaska. Many times we don't hear those strong Alaskan voices here in Washington and I'm so pleased we have that aspect to the conference. So while I'm confessing to you I have two other confessions to make. About six months ago there were several of us in this room that were thinking as the Canadian government was contemplating its Arctic Council agenda that maybe we could have a conversation, maybe think about a North American Arctic Council chairmanship as our Nordic colleagues had been using their successive chairmanship to develop a longer term agenda. We couldn't quite pull that off so I consider today about the best way we're going to have a truly North American conversation about the Arctic and the Arctic Council. And then I have my last confession to make. This entire idea many months ago was hatched over a cup of coffee in a restaurant a few blocks from the State Department with my good friend John Higginbottom and a colleague from the State Department. So strange ideas over a cup of coffee can materialize into very exciting projects. Just a quick note John has been an intellectual driver behind this conference. I think we have managed to depopulate Canada today of its most knowledgeable Arctic experts. I'm so glad but please safely travel home. We need you to continue to develop great Canadian policy towards the Arctic. And so I just want to offer a very special note of great thanks to the generosity of CG which provided the transportation for many of our Canadian participants. And I would also like to thank the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Foundation for their generous contribution to this conference as well. So again what a rich day of discussion we have ahead of us. We're going to hear from senior Canadian and American government officials on the policy vision for the Arctic Council chairmanship. And then we'll bring both Canadian and American experts together to debate those agendas those ideas and to discover what more we need to do to strengthen the Arctic Council. And as I mentioned we're going to hear some extremely vital voices from the Canadian and American North. We're delighted to have the Canadian premiers from Nunavut and the Northwest Territories with us as well as the Minister of Environment and Economic Development from the UConn. We have the chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council with us today, policy advisor from the Alaskan Athabascan Council. We have rich, rich indigenous voices with us today. And of course we're delighted that Senator McGuire and Representative Herron from the State of Alaska could be with us today. And of course at the very end of this conversation after the rich debate we'll talk about the future of the Arctic Council and again only seven months preparing from the Canadian chairmanship to the American chairmanship. So again, we're extremely excited. Just a few housekeeping notes, we're not going to allow you to take a break today until we get to lunch because the discussion is going to be that interesting. However, please feel free to refresh your coffee, get up, stretch throughout the conversation and the doors are open in the back and we're just going to keep this conversation rolling so we don't lose anything but we promise to take a nice break at lunch and then come back for more conversation. So finally, I always have a funny saying, I always say it's a good day when we can talk about the Arctic. Well, today is going to be a great day because we have great people who are going to give us great insights and knowledge. So I thank again so many of my colleagues that have traveled far and wide to come and be with us and share their insights. And so I now pass the torch to my colleague John Higginbottom, senior fellow at C.G. and Carlton University in Ottawa who will say a few words and then introduce our first speaker, Vince Rigby. Welcome everyone, thank you so much. Thanks John. Thank you Heather and I can't say enough about working with Heather and working in coming to this wonderful facility at C.G. It's a great pleasure to be here. I had some of the six best professional years of my life working as the Minister of Political Transboundary at the Embassy in Washington. And I am a great fan of Canada-U.S. relations which are 99 percent excellent at all times at top bottom middle. And we sometimes forget that for various reasons, both Canadians and Americans. But to talk jointly about the Arctic and approach to the Arctic, in this case the issue of the transition of the leadership from Canada to the United States I think is a great opportunity to exchange views and strengthen cooperation on dealing with the new challenges that both countries face in the North American Arctic. I won't go on about the challenges we face up there, it's obvious the turnout today I think reflects the deep interest of many different organizations and people in the changes and challenges that are appearing in the Arctic because of climate change, because of melting ice, because of increased commercialization, because of increased pressure on stewardship. I think there's many perspectives there but it's our responsibility jointly I would say as both countries and individuals to manage those pressures in a way that integrates the different policy objectives as well as we can. So I'm going to, without further ado, I'm going to introduce my colleague and friend Vince Rigby. He's our Chairman of the Senior Arctic Officials. He's had a long experience in foreign affairs, in our aid and development agency, in our Defense Department and in our privy council office and I'm sure he's going, is doing and will do an exceptionally good job in terms of chairing the senior Arctic officials in the remaining few months of Canada's chair. A lot of work not yet completed in our chair but we look very much forward to carrying on some of the energy and some of the ideas that came out in our chairmanship onto the United States. So I have great confidence that the United States is going to play a very vigorous leadership role in the Arctic through the Arctic Council. Vince, please. Thank you very much, John. Thank you very much, Heather. Thank you to CSIS, not CISIS. That's the way we always make the distinction back in Ottawa. CG for organizing this conference today and I have to say it's been a while since I've been back to CSIS, I think about five, six years. I didn't realize you had a new facility and it's absolutely fabulous, I have to say. So please invite me back again soon and I will definitely come but this is something else. We don't see this in Ottawa very often so it's fantastic. But the time for this conference is absolutely phenomenal as far as I'm concerned. I mean, Canada is about halfway through, a little bit more than halfway through of its chairmanship of the Arctic Council so it's a wonderful opportunity for me on behalf of Minister Gluckluck who censor regrets for not being here today to give maybe a bit of a status update on where we are with respect to our signature initiatives in the Arctic Council that we're pursuing with the support obviously of other Arctic Council members, both member states and permanent participants, but also a chance to not just check out where we are, where we've been, but where we're going to go. And so this sort of, I would say a sweet spot that you've had here so we have a chance to look forward and we have a chance to talk about the future of the Arctic Council and of course the U.S.'s chairmanship coming up in 2015. So I'm really looking forward to today, I'm looking forward to hearing the views of everybody and as I mentioned at the reception at the Canadian Embassy last night I'm still on a bit of a learning curve so this is a great opportunity for me as well to hear from people and have conversations not just in the room but over coffee etc. So really looking forward to it. So let me just start off by saying something that I think for most of you will be pretty obvious. Global interest in the Arctic and its people, its environment, its prospects for economic development is currently unparalleled. Never in history has there been such widespread fascination with the region and never in history has the region been experiencing such monumental change. This change is leading to new and to exciting opportunities, opportunities for growth and also opportunities for prosperity. It is also leading to a number of new challenges be they social, environmental or economic. The recent discovery in Canada's Nunavut territory of one of the ships that disappeared in 1846 during the Franklin expedition to chart the Northwest Passage is a reminder that after almost 170 years some of the challenging environmental conditions faced by these early explorers are still faced by Arctic inhabitants today. But some of the stories of these early explorers also provide hope. Hope that we can rise to the occasion and tackle the specific challenges of this the 21st century. Take Royal de Monson, the Norwegian explorer. He traversed the Northwest Passage after a three-year voyage aboard the 4510 fishing vessel the Joe. En route due to difficult conditions he had to spend two winters in a small community in Nunavut also known as Joe Haven. There he gained valuable knowledge from the Inuit who have lived in the area since time immemorial on how to survive in the harsh Arctic environment. And with that help he completed his mission making it to the small community of Nome on Alaska's Pacific Coast in 1906 and thereby becoming the first person to successfully cross the Passage. Now some of you may not know this but Canada's Minister for the Arctic Council, the Honorable Leona Glucklug and the current chair of course of the of the Council is from that very small community in the heart of Canada's Arctic where Amundsen wintered. And as I say the Minister unfortunately cannot be with us today very very busy schedule but she does send her warm greetings and I really am very pleased to speak on her behalf. I recently had the opportunity to travel to Nunavut myself for the first time for the founding meeting of the Arctic Economic Council in Calawitt. I was struck by the rugged and the raw beauty of this part of the Arctic a part of Canada where few Canadians will unfortunately ever visit because of its remoteness. My time in Calawitt also made me aware of some of the special challenges faced by people who live in the Arctic today ranging from technology, high cost of every every day goods, difficult social issues or even reliable transportation. As many have said the Arctic is a humbling and an intriguing place. Protecting its fragile environment is clearly critical and so is protecting a sustainable way of life for the people who call the Arctic their home. The appointment of Minister Glucklug as Canada's Minister for the Arctic Council and Inuit as I say born and raised in Canada's North underlines the importance that Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada and the government place on the unique knowledge and experience that the people of the North can bring to the Arctic dialogue. Just like Amundsen could not have completed his journey without the knowledge gained from his Inuit hosts the council cannot respond effectively to the change happening in the Arctic without the views of Northerners themselves. That is why the Minister, Minister Glucklug, consulted broadly both in Canada's North and with our Arctic Council partners in developing the priorities for Canada's chairmanship of the Arctic Council. And the message was abundantly clear. The well-being and prosperity of people living in the North must be at the forefront of the Arctic Council's priorities. And so the theme during Canada's chairmanship is development for the people of the North with the focus on responsible resource development, safe Arctic shipping and sustainable circumpolar communities. Our priority initiatives are focusing on actions that make a difference to the more than four million inhabitants across the circumpolar North. Now with 18 years under its belt, the Arctic Council has clearly established itself as the leading body for international cooperation on arctic issues. Since its creation in 1996 with the signing of the Ottawa Declaration, the council has successfully focused on critical pan-Arctic issues, in particular those related to sustainable development and of course environmental protection. Just as Canada hosted the first ministerial meeting in Caliwet in 1998, we will come full circle and host the ninth ministerial meeting at the same location next April 24th and April 25th. Holding the ministerial in Caliwet in the heart of Canada's North symbolizes the importance Canada places on having these meetings in the Arctic. And to commemorate the location of the council's creation, we will also be holding a series of panels, workshops and other related events in Ottawa on April 23rd, where we will celebrate the accomplishments of the council during Canada's second chairmanship. Now in its early days, the council was focused on scientific assessments, bringing together existing research and preparing assessment reports on key issues of relevance to the Arctic. Now we see a council that is clearly evolving. In addition to undertaking more forward looking longer term assessments, it is increasingly becoming action oriented and influencing policy development. Two legally binding agreements amongst the Arctic states, one on search and rescue in 2011 and another on oil spill preparedness and response in 2013, have now been negotiated under the auspices of the council. At a little over a year and a half into the second round of chairmanship, the council has truly, in our view, come into its own. It is showing that it can respond to the changing priorities in the Arctic and the evolving needs for its people, most important of all. We are looking to the future, but in doing so, we can't forget our past. For example, we must acknowledge that the council's governance structure, which has been in place since its inception, contributes greatly to its success. The indigenous permanent participant organization sitting at the table with the Antarctic states and playing a role in decision making represent a unique feature of the council that really struck me when I first came to the job. This is a feature Canada advocated for since before the council was actually created. And as the council grows and evolves, it is important that the voices of these organizations remain strong. This is truly a priority for Canada and we're spearheading a few initiatives during our chairmanship to ensure this happens. For one, we're committed to exploring ways to enhance the capacity of the permanent participants to contribute fully to the work of the council. And here, Canada's worked with the Arctic states and the permanent participant organizations to develop a number of options. We're hosting a workshop just prior to the next senior Arctic officials meeting in Yellowknife at the end of this month to figure out which options are feasible and how we can implement them. We're also working on ways to improve the incorporation of traditional and local knowledge into the work of the council so that the critical insights of the people who have lived in the north for generations can be combined with what we have learned through our scientific research. The council has definitely had some success in this regard. One good example is the Arctic biodiversity assessment. The scientific information in this landmark assessment undertaken by the conservation of Arctic flora and fauna working group, the CAF, was informed by traditional ecological knowledge at every step in its development. We'd like to make it more consistent right across the council, and so we're developing recommendations to make this a reality. We've already had two foundational workshops to scope the issues, which were led by the permanent participants and the indigenous people secretary, and next we'll be turning our attention to the actual recommendations, which will be presented to the ministers next April in Caliwit. And finally, we're working with the permanent participant organizations and the Arctic states to identify best practices in the promotion of the traditional ways of life of Arctic inhabitants. This includes everything from preserving languages, to conserving hunting and fishing grounds, to managing wildlife resources such as polar bears, to celebrating different cultures and different values. Because non-Arctic inhabitants often have very little knowledge and understanding of these traditional ways of life, decisions and actions taken outside the region can't have potentially significant negative impacts on Northerners, and we have to avoid that. To help ensure that the council's work is relevant, as an economic boom unfolds in the region, enhancing the council's work on sustainable economic and social development has also been a priority during Canada's chairmanship. Take, for example, Canada's flagship initiative to create the Arctic Economic Council, or the AEC, as it's known. I was very pleased to attend the AEC's founding meeting in Caliwit, none of it earlier this month, which was hosted by the minister, minister Gluck. I was impressed with the strength and breadth of expertise that I saw in the room during that meeting, and I'm confident that with this independent body of business leaders, they will work together to foster sustainable development, including economic growth, environmental protection and social development in the Arctic. Now, speaking of social development, during Canada's chairmanship we've also been working to enhance the ability of residents to deal with the many changes happening in the region by promoting mental wellness, which I have to say, for minister Gluck, is a major, major priority. There are many approaches to promoting mental wellness across the circumpole in North, some quite honestly more successful than others. Through the mental wellness initiative, Arctic States and permanent participants are learning from one another to determine which approaches work best, and they are developing recommendations on how to transfer successful practices to other communities. A synthesis report is currently being developed to outline an inventory of promising interventions and key indicators to assess resilience and well-being programs, and all of the outcomes will be presented at a symposium in a Caliwit in March, and we're very, very grateful for the support of the United States in co-leading this project. This focus on economic and social development initiatives has supported the evolution of the Council. At the same time, we are very, very cognizant of the Council's roots, its history, its traditions. As such, we've also made it a priority to expand its important ongoing environmental work. It is clear as everybody in this room knows that the Arctic is facing rapid changes in its climate and physical environment with potential widespread effects for northern communities and for northern ecosystems. Short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon and methane are contributing to warmer temperatures and can also have serious local health effects. Canada's chairmanship initiative to develop actions that Arctic and observer states like and take to achieve greater black carbon and methane emissions reductions is aimed at tackling this key issue. As well, our priority initiative to develop an innovative online climate change adaptation portal. Again, we're very pleased that the United States is leading or co-leading on this initiative. This is also an important element of continuing the Council's climate change work. This portal will facilitate access to relevant adaptation resources so that northerners, researchers and decision-makers can share experiences, lessons and best practices. Equally important during Canada's chairmanship is furthering the Council's work to protect the Arctic marine environment. Here we are developing an action plan on oil pollution prevention as well as guidelines for sustainable tourism and cruise ship operations and other U.S. Co-led project. And I mentioned again the United States leadership here just to just to emphasize the close relationship the Canada and the U.S. have going forward. I talked a little bit about this at the Embassy last night. As the breadth of issues affected in the Arctic expands becomes more important for the Council to assess where can make a real contribution and encourage concrete results-based actions that make a difference, truly make a difference for the people that are living in the North. To do that the Council needs to be strong, it needs to be effective, it needs to be relevant. That is why Canada is also prioritizing initiatives that help strengthen the Council's capacity and capability. From its communications to its administration, from its document archiving to its tracking of activities, from its engagement of youth to its collaboration with multilateral institutions. With a little under seven months remaining in Canada's chairmanship, we are setting our sights on the Caliwit ministerial and looking forward to celebrating the Council's accomplishments during our tenure. There is still some work to do, a lot of work to do, but it is progressing and I hope I've captured that today. It's progressing well thanks in large part to the support and the cooperation of our Arctic Council partners. And again we're particularly grateful for the active role that the United States is taking during our chairmanship and its continued support for our priorities. The U.S. has always been Canada's most important Arctic partner and I've got a little bit of history here working at the Department of National Defense for 15 years. I spent a lot of time working on NORAD activities and what have you, so I'm well aware of the deep, deep tradition of cooperation that the two countries share in the Arctic. We share many of the same challenges and opportunities in the North and collaborate in a wide variety of areas including science and technology, Aboriginal Affairs, infrastructure, development, defense as I just indicated and of course search and rescue. Northerners in Canada and Alaska also share many similarities, despite the border that separates our two countries. And these are not just limited to sharing a similar, often harsh climate. Northern Canadians and Alaskans have strong historical connections and strong economic relations and our people find creative ways to tackle social environmental challenges and to adapt to rapid and often profound change. There can be no doubt that the people of Alaska as the U.S.'s only Arctic residents have an important role to play in the development and implementation of the U.S. Arctic Council chairmanship agenda. I was very fortunate to meet with Admiral Papp yesterday to discuss our views on the future of the Arctic and our respective ambitions for the council and I'm really encouraged by the progress being made by the U.S. in developing its priorities and the consultations that are taking place in that regard and I know Admiral Papp is going to give us a little bit more later in the morning. Canada is truly looking forward to maintaining our close relationship and cooperation as the U.S. prepares to take over the reins in 2015 undertake its second Arctic Council chairmanship program. And as I said last night and it's an important point, our back-to-back chairmanship provide a tremendous opportunity to work together to advance our shared priorities, almost North American priorities for the Arctic region and to ensure that the council continues to address issues that matter most to those who live in the north. So let me sum up. Let's take hold of those opportunities and by doing so we'll continue to evolve as an organization and let's remember that each Arctic State is a steward of the council during its two-year chairmanship but the work that needs to be done does not stop after two years. To make a real difference, a much longer-term view is needed. Cooperation amongst all Arctic partners is essential and one of the things that I've learned well on the job that the continuity of the initiatives of the task forces and the workgroups is absolutely critical as the Arctic Council moves into the future. So as we carry on with the work, let's also not forget the importance of the land, the water, the ecosystems. They're important to the Arctic people who depend on the environment for their livelihoods. And finally, let's not forget the importance of the human dimension. We have the hope that each Arctic inhabitant has for the future health and the future prosperity of the region. We all share that hope and through effective work at the Arctic Council we truly believe that we can make that hope a reality. Thank you very much again. I really look forward to the rest of the day's proceedings. Thank you. I obviously mastered his brief, tested him with a couple of questions. We don't have much time. I like that last part. Short questions, short answers. Sure. Anybody? I've stunned you into silence with my brilliant remarks, clearly. Hi, I'm Nina with the German Marshall Fund. Yes. And I have a question regarding, like, you were talking about the local people in the Arctic. And I guess there are many initiatives you have them representing on the Arctic Council, giving them voice. But I'm wondering what possible conflicts do you think could arise within the local community? Or any maybe doubts they could have about any actions that are taken, for example, maybe the exploitation of natural resources on their territory? Did you say possible conflicts? Yeah, possible conflicts or even just doubts or things that whether it's the local communities or maybe the indigenous people that they may have. I think all I can say to that is, again, I think one of the impacts of Canada's chairmanship of the Arctic Council has been open communication and reaching out directly to northerners, to inhabitants. We're well aware that there are a lot of sensitive issues with respect to natural resource development and a whole range of issues we could spend the whole day talking about what those are. But I think in particular having Minister Glucklick there as a northerner who's reached out early on in developing the priorities for the chairmanship, but throughout the last 18 months, all of us, both the minister and senior officials going to the north, talking and communicating what our priorities are and how we want to move forward. But I think most importantly of all, listening. Listening a lot to what people have to say, that's the way you work through those issues. So I mean, again, we could get into concrete examples and where some of those sensitive issues are and the back and forth. But I think at the end of the day, and I think that's one of the themes of my remarks, if not the key theme, is that the Arctic Council priorities under our chairmanship have been about northerners, about reaching out, about speaking to them directly. And really it's about under Minister Glucklick's leadership, I think, establishing a dialogue and a really concrete dialogue. And so that, I think, has been, I think it's going to be one of the, quite frankly, one of the significant takeaways from the Canadian chairmanship that we've done it this way. And again, we've been very, very privileged to have a minister, to have a chair at the Arctic Council who comes from the region, so understands these issues. And I can tell you, having spoken many times with Minister Glucklick, she is sensitive to all of these issues and she knows them inside out. And she has the northerners' interests at heart. And they come first and foremost for her. They really do. And that reflects well, I think, on the Canadian government and on officials as well and moving forward. Well, thank you very much for being here and explaining the Canadian accomplishment so far. There are a lot of people in the room who will be wondering about Russia's ongoing involvement in the Arctic Council. And it certainly strikes me that maintaining the engagement with Russia in the Arctic Council is an important way of continuing to communicate with that country, despite the very serious actions of the Putin regime in Ukraine. And as part of that ongoing engagement, it strikes me as crucial that the Russian Foreign Minister be at the ministerial in Ikalovet. Is it Canada's intention to welcome him to that meeting? Thank you. The time that I've been on the job as chair of the senior Arctic officials, I think that we've managed, we collectively, the Arctic Council has managed to almost put a bit of a fence around the Arctic as a region and the Arctic Council specifically as an entity and isolated somewhat from what's happening in Europe but now with respect to Ukraine and Russia and Russia's actions in Ukraine. And we've been very fortunate in that regard that apart from a couple of little stumbling blocks, the cooperation between Arctic Council states, including Russia, has continued to operate, I think, at a very, very high level. It is certainly our hope that we can continue that over the coming months. We're obviously at the mercy to a certain extent of external events and what continues to happen in Russia. I don't have a crystal ball. Some of us in the room will be glass half full types and others will be glass half empty. If the situation deteriorates then we will clearly have an issue and we'll have to address that. If the situation stabilizes then I think we'll be fine but I can tell you this much that certainly in dealing with my Russian counterpart up to this point I've received nothing but positive messages with respect to Russia's commitment to making this work, to making the Arctic Council work under Canada's chairmanship. We're certainly supportive of Russia's continued engagement in the Arctic Council and we're going to try and make this work over the coming months but beyond that I can't predict at this point but certainly yes the plan right now is to hopefully have an Arctic Council ministerial in a Calawit next spring that's going to be fully representative. I think probably we've got to wind it up at that point. Happy to talk to people on the margins through the course today. Thank you, John. Thank you very much. You absolutely have the invitation right now to come back to CSIS. We always do a road to new corona and I know we'll have an event that will talk about the road to Kuliat so we are very excited. I'd like to welcome our first panel to please come up. We're going to put your name tense up and if you have to this is a great moment to get a quick cup of coffee and switch because we're going to begin with the next panel. Thank you. Let's please come on up.