7th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting takes place in Greenland

In Nuuk, Greenland on 12 May 2011, Foreign Ministers representing the eight Arctic States, Permanent Participants representing the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic, and Arctic Council Observers and Non-Government Organizations, met to discuss future challenges in the Arctic.

Significantly, the meeting culminated with the signing of the Nuuk Declaration and the 'Agreement on cooperation on aeronautical and maritime search and rescue in the Arctic', the first legally binding agreement to be signed under the auspices of the Arctic Council.

The Arctic Council will also get a secretariat, headquartered in the Norwegian city of Tromso.

The meeting saw Denmark pass the Chairmanship of the Arctic Council to Sweden for 2011-2013. Danish foreign minister Lene Espersen spoke of her pride that Denmark could be part of delivering the first legally binding instrument from the Arctic Council and discussed her hopes that Sweden would aim to do the same in the area of oil pollution prevention. See the webcast here.

A full list of documents from the Ministerial Meeting are available here.