Canadian Minister of Arctic Affairs Leona Aglukkaq met with Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Össur Skarphéðinsson to discuss cooperation between the two countries when she visited Reykjavík yesterday.
Leona Aglukkaq and Össur Skarphéðinsson. Photo courtesy of the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Aglukkaq, who is also Minister of Health and Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, is on a tour of the Nordic countries to introduce Canada’s Chairmanship Programme for the Arctic Council, which it will take on at the Council’s ministerial meeting in Kiruna, Sweden on May 15.
The Ministers discussed the importance of strengthening practical cooperation of the Arctic States on responses to environmental disasters such as oil spills, as well as economic cooperation and the possible establishment of Circumpolar Chamber of Commerce, as stated in a press release from the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Aglukkaq also met with Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources Svandís Svavarsdóttir and Arctic affairs experts in Iceland.
Click here to read about negotiations on a legally binding agreement on oil spills in the Arctic which took place in Reykjavík in October.
ZR
