The Maritime Herald published an article titled, “Switzerland seeks for observer status in the Arctic Council.” The article reads as follows;
“Switzerland hopes to get observer status in the Arctic Council after the meeting of the foreign ministers of the member countries, which will be held May 10-11 in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Arctic Council is an intergovernmental organization of the Arctic states, but latest disputes and increasing interest of operations in the Arctic shelf raised concerns of the world to p[roper exploration and development of the resources. During the international forum “The Arctic – Territory of Dialogue” participated the Swiss Ambassador in Russia, as well as business officials interested in operations of the zone. The observers of the Arctic Council participate in the work at the level of working groups and can make scientific and financial contributions to all projects of the organization.
‘We hope to get observer status in Alaska in May’, said the Swiss Ambassador in Russian Federation, Yves Rossier. ‘In my opinion, Switzerland is a good candidate’, he added.
Earlier in an interview the diplomat stated that Switzerland would seek to grant it observer status to the Arctic Council. Yves Rossier told that Swiss scientists have done a great job in the field of meteorology and studying the specifics of the behavior of eternal ice.
The Arctic Council is an intergovernmental organization of the Arctic states. Its members are Denmark (together with Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Iceland, Canada, Norway, Russia, the United States, Finland and Sweden. The twelve states (Britain, Germany, India, Spain, Italy, China, Republic of Korea, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, France and Japan) have observer status. A similar status is sought by the European Union and 16 other organizations and countries.
Earlier on Friday, Russian Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic, Vladimir Barbin, said that the number of observer countries in the Arctic Council would be significantly increased at a meeting of foreign ministers of the member countries in May.”
