A two day conference “Canada/Russia/Norway: Dialogue and Cooperation in the Arctic”, is being held on May 26-27, 2011 at the Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
“The conference will bring together key people from the three countries who can talk about solutions to real-world problems facing the Arctic, such as ecology, transportation and business-related issues. We need to decide on how we can co-operate and move forward on these issues before resolving the issue of Arctic sovereignty,” says Piotr Dutkiewicz, conference chair, Professor of Political Science at Carleton and Member of the Valdai Club Advisory Board.
Leading international experts will be joined by businessmen and high-profile officials of the Canadian and Norwegian institutions, such as Mr. Espen Barth Eide, the Norwegian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mrs. Janet King, assistant deputy minister, Northern Affairs Organization (NAO). Lewis Cardinal, national chair, Aboriginal Voices Radio Network and president of the Indigenous Media Institute of Canada, is delivering the keynote address at lunch.
The Russian delegation includes the representative of the RF to the Arctic Council, Ambassador at large Anton Vasiliev, Director of the Centre of Northern and Arctic economics, Ministry of Economic Development Alexander Pelyasov; Director of the World Ocean Centre, Ministry of Economic Development Alexey Konovalov and Deputy Director of the Severtsov Institute of the Ecological and Evolution Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vyacheslav Rozhnov.
Among the issues raised at the conference will be working out platforms for dialogue and co-operation between the Arctic nations, ways for ensuring eco-system-based management in the Arctic, and developing best practices for circumarctic transportation.
The agenda of the conference presupposes common discussion, bilateral roundtables and several briefings for media.
The conference is organized by the Carleton University together with the Valdai Discussion Club and in cooperation with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) and National Defence and Canadian Forces (DND). It is supported by the Magna Fund for Russian Studies, Kinross Gold Corporation, Norwegian and Russian Embassies in Ottawa.