Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir wants the global North to become a weapon-free zone, RÚV reports. She stated this in her address at the Arctic Circle 2018 assembly held at Harpa on Friday morning.
Katrín also issued a call to action on global warming and said that the Arctic should become a staging ground for international cooperation on environmental protection issues. This can only be done, she said, if countries commit to working together. Creating a weapon-free environment is vital to these efforts, she continued.
Former Icelandic president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson said at the conference that it’s clear that the Arctic region has become an international region. Conferences on the Arctic are held around the world, he said, and in countries such as China and South Korea. He underscored this point by noting that the Foreign Minister of Japan was one of the conference’s primary speakers, an indication in and of itself, perhaps, of the international community’s interest in the Arctic.
The Arctic Circle is “an open, democratic platform with participation from governments, organizations, corporations, universities, think tanks, environmental associations, indigenous communities, concerned citizens, and others interested in the development of the Arctic and its consequences for the future of the globe.” This is the sixth time the organisation has held an assembly, drawing 2,000 participants from 60 countries.
