mr president this debate clearly follows on from our resolution last october on arctic governance
our group has no problem in supporting the wish for an arctic treaty but more in the light of a quest for a new mode of governance
the treaty is perhaps more symbolic but what we do insist upon is working with and respecting the nations and more particularly the peoples of the arctic
it is people as you have already said that distinguish the arctic from the antarctic
there are already international structures the international maritime organisation imo rules the international law of the sea but there is a need for something more tailored and more specific
we should build on the work of the arctic council
commissioner you should join it as soon as possible and you should help build its political capacity
at all costs we have to avoid a retreat into old-style sovereignty territorial claims and intergovernmentalism
a new style of governance is needed for this fragile area of our globe in which every citizen of the world feels they have an interest or a stake
we also have to prove our credentials for arctic involvement and our record as europeans is not good
our sailors and traders devastated the arctic environment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the so-called rape of spitsbergen
it is our industrial emissions that have led directly to acute climate change in the region and we now threaten to impose our values and our traditions on the peoples of the arctic at this very sensitive moment
we have to listen to them and work with them because quite frankly their record of protecting their environment is better than ours
our group will not therefore support the fifty year moratorium
