Yet another leader –
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson – the President of Iceland has stepped in to warn the
world of the consequences of the changes occurring in the Arctic. It was
exactly 25 years ago in October 1987, the then Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev,
in the landmark Murmansk initiative, announced the Arctic as a “zone of peace”,
which created the basis for the establishment of an inter-governmental
cooperation body known as “Arctic Council”. Since 1996 the Arctic Council has
been successfully dealing with Arctic Affairs addressing multiple issues that
affect Arctic environment and societies and its people including highlights on
its significant number of indigenous peoples. While the inter-governmental body
as a whole is a closed one involving only the eight Arctic states, in recent
years, rapid changes occurring in the Arctic have got eye opening situation
also for the non-Arctic nations from the rest of the world. The Arctic Council
although has recently added six non-Arctic nations as observers, the latter
nevertheless do not have any effective role to play rather than only observing
the meetings.
President Grímsson’s
initiative – Arctic Circle – thus finds a place where not only the Arctic states,
actors, stakeholders and its people will have a role to play, but also it
involves all other actors, regardless of where-so-ever they are from, either
effected by the changes taking place in the region or have got legitimate
interests in the Arctic. These actors include nation states, as well as
business companies, academics, policy analysts, think tank institutions, NGOs,
media etc. The first meeting of the initiative has just taken place in
Icelandic capital Reykjavik from 12-14 October 2013. Quite an impressive number
of states’ representatives including Ministers and Ambassadors both from Arctic
and non-Arctic nations attended the meeting. President Putin of Russia sent Mr.
Artur Chilingravo – the Russian polar explorer, who became a legendary figure
after planting Russian flag in 2007 underneath the North Pole – as his special
envoy, who explained Russia’s position in the Arctic. What makes the event
special was an all-inclusive participation from variety of different sectors
including, among others business sectors, such as shipping, oil and gas,
tourism etc.
The three day conference
was full of interesting presentations, both academic and non-academic, from a range
of issues of Arctic interests. The presentations brought both alarming pictures
pertaining to climate change and environmental consequence as well as the pictures
on new opportunities bringing economic boom to the region. On one hand the
presentations show the concerns from environmentalists, and on the other hand
they also show responses from companies on ways how they see things are moving
ahead with sufficient precaution based on the available scientific knowledge of
the region. Interestingly, the conference has seen huge interactions on
cross-sectoral issues. Listening to each other’s views, discussions and
dialogues amongst participants from multiples sectors with differing interests
brought innovation in dealing with the Arctic. The repercussion of disseminated
knowledge definitely brings significant incentives where balanced actions for
sustainability have been the highlighted issue. The full of presentations have
not limited the conference itself to only a venue for serious discussions. It
had a lot of fun part too. For many it has also been a venue for meeting good
old colleagues as well as a ground for network building.
It is not yet completely
clear, what future does the Arctic Circle predict – whether it aims to emerge
as a formal institution or not – President Grímsson, nevertheless, desires to
hold the gathering as an annual event every year. It is thus yet to be seen in
which direction Arctic Circle moves, but for sure its annual gathering will
bring new insights in knowledge building and sharing within the Arctic itself,
and with the rest of the world.
