The US State Department on Tuesday denied that it had prevented the Arctic Council from signing a joint declaration after a meeting of the intergovernmental body ended with the release a short statement that did not include the phrase
Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini, the chair of the Arctic Council, said in a press conference following the ministerial in Rovaniemi, Finland, that «the declaration in a traditional way wasn’t possible this time.»
He declined to blame the United States for the lack of consensus, saying, «I don’t name and blame anybody,» but noted that «it is clear that the climate issues are different from the different viewpoints and from the different capitals.»
«It is clear that those climate issues cannot be solved in this particular meeting,» Soini said.
The statement signed by the foreign ministers of the eight member states — Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States — was only one page long and devoid of any mention of climate change. It focused on continued cooperation in the region and said that the council reaffirmed «its commitment to the well-being of the inhabitants of the Arctic, to sustainable development, and to the protection of the Arctic environment.»
A senior State Department official said that «it’s not accurate to say that the US wouldn’t support a joint declaration.»
«There were several different versions of the Declaration going around.
