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| | Nordic cooperation with Canada must be strenghtened | |
Secretary General for the Nordic Council of Ministers, Halldór Ásgrímsson (left side) and Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lawrence Cannon.
It is time to increase the cooperation between The North and Canada. This was confirmed by Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lawrence Cannon and the Secretary General for the Nordic Council of Ministers, Halldór Ásgrímsson at a meeting in Ottawa in December. NORA, one of the most central nordic institutions when speaking of developing practical project cooperation with Canada, participated in the Secretary General’s delegation.
At the meeting between Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary General for the Nordic Council of Ministers there was agreement on Nordic countries stepping up the cooperation with Canada within a line of areas.
As possible cooperation areas/fields themes like innovation, environment, marine questions, education and research, social and health as well as culture with focus on creative industries were appointed.
NORA can play a central role
NORA’s president attended the Secretary General’s delegation along with a representative from the resigning Icelandic council and a representative for the future/coming Danish council (from the Greenlandic Foreign Office) together with two officials from the Nordic Council of Ministers’ secretariat.
In October 2008 NORA’s working party completed a fact-finding mission to Canada. Already then, NORA established a great interest from the Canadian Atlantic provinces on developing the concrete project cooperation with the North Atlantic region along with the rest of the North.
“It is very positive that NORA’s fact-finding mission now has been followed up by a Nordic delegation with large political weight/pull. On both a federal and a provincial level there were given clear political signals about Canada’s interest in developing the mutual cooperation. This provides NORA with great opportunity in relation to proceeding with the current plans on giving NORA an even more central position within the North’s west-faced neighbouring cooperation", says NORA’s president, Lars Thostrup, with reference to the programme for the newly begun Danish committee for the Nordic Council of Ministers.
In the Danish committee’s program ‘The North in propulsion’ it is says, among other things:
“The committee will develope and make visible the cooperation with The North’s neighbours in the west. It is an extension of the statement Vest-Norden in the Nordic cooperation. The possibility that North Atlantic cooperation (NORA) will gain a strenghtened role in the coordination of the cooperation with the North’s neighbours in the west and in the North Atlantic must be uncovered in order to make the cooperation even more effective. Especially in relation to the new environmental, economical and social related challenges the globalization and the climate changes for coastal communities in the North Atlantic region.”
Globalization and climate changes
The Secretary General for the Nordic Council of Ministers, Halldór Ásgrímsson and his delegation had, during their visit to Canada, meetings with several representatives from the Government on both federal and provincial level.
On top of the agenda were the questions about how the countries jointly handle the environmental, economic and social related challenges the globalization and climate changes have for the Arctic areas and coastal communities in the North Atlantic.
Already by the launch of the Canadian strategy for the Northern regions in June the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that there was a need for both national as well as international creative initiatives in order to ensure better understanding of the realities in the Arctic, including the Arctic culture and lifestyle.
source: NORA / 05.01.2010
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