Namminiilivinnermut, Nunanut Allanut Nunalerinermullu Naalakkersuisoqarfik Departementet for Selvstændighed, Udenrigsanliggender og Landbrug

Session XIII “Leading Development in the North American Arctic.” February 3rd 2018, 08:45 – 10:00.

Ministers, Excellencies, Leaders of the North American Arctic, Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I want to thank CIGI for putting together this session today, and for making this format for discussion with fellow- decision-makers from across our region of Arctic North America a reality. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to express some viewpoints from Greenland on the topic of “Leading development in the North American Arctic.”

In March last year, my predecessor had the chance to talk at length in a roundtable format with fellow decision-makers from Alaska, North West Territories, Nunavut and Yukon about the possibilities for increased regional cooperation for the benefit of our peoples. I am happy to be here to advance those discussions and I would like here to highlight to you elements of possible cooperation, as they relate specifically to Greenland.

What type of developments we want to see in the Arctic for our regions and peoples? Bringing together leaders from across Alaska, Arctic Canada and Greenland to try and see how the increasing attention the Arctic is attracting internationally, can be transformed into real economic development across our Northern regions is the important first step. Development in the Arctic region needs to be with and for the Arctic peoples – with this session, I feel we are acknowledging this vital premise.

After having taken this first step, there are many more to be taken towards a North American Arctic strengthened cooperation. The fact is, that despite Alaska, Arctic Canada and Greenland’s geographical closeness, our shared heritage and the close cooperation between our respective capitals 1 north to south, there continues to be very little cooperation and economic exchange between Greenland and the rest of North America.

Greenland’s capital Nuuk is only 500 miles away from Iqaluit in Nunavut. The region of Qaanaaq in the far North of Greenland we are only 200 miles away from Grise Fiord in Nunavut. Roughly the same distance as from here to Toronto. In comparison Nuuk is more than 2000 miles away from Copenhagen.

Mindsets have to be changed.

Traditionally across the ice between Grise Fiord and Qaanaaq in my home region, there used to be frequent travels and trading. We have friends and relations across the region because of these historical links.

But today there are limited trading links between Greenland and the rest of North America. But slowly things are starting to change

Greenland is taking the first steps to change this now.

Last year, our Royal Arctic Line, a shipping company, concluded an ambitious joint venture agreement with Iceland’s shipping company Eimskip, which combined with our major container-port construction in Nuuk that was completed last year, will enable Greenland’s shipping links to go both East to Iceland and to the main ports in Europe, as well as West to Canada and the United States.

Once fully implemented, Greenland will be linked through Iceland for shipping directly to and from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada and Boston and Portland in the United States.

In 2015, my Government also negotiated a decision to radically upgrade Greenland’s airport infrastructure, which will allow

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Greenland to trade, travel and develop like other regions of the world. In the Arctic, many of our primary barriers are physical.

Once, our container-port in Nuuk and the joint venture agreement between Royal Arctic Line and Eimskip is fully implemented, Greenland will be physically linked to North America for trade in goods at a level never experienced before.

Similarly, with the upgrade of our airport infrastructure over the coming years, it is only a matter of time, before there will be the ability re-establish air links to Canada or the United States. The sooner this happens, the better.

There may be big differences between Greenland and Alaska, the Northwest Territories, Yukon Territory or Nunavut in terms of relationship with our federal capital, but more importantly there are great similarities in the challenges that we face.

Life is beautifully brutal in the Arctic. But as we are balancing traditional livelihoods with being a part of the modern world, we are increasingly facing vulnerable economies due to climatic changes and global market price fluctuations - and living costs are high. This is why securing our peoples for generations to come by diversifying the economy and lowering living expenses are priorities to all of us sitting here today.

Many of our countries are limited in human and financial resources – but rich in many other ways, be it adaptation, resilience as well as natural resources that we want to develop. Through collaboration, best practices, innovative solutions to the common issues we all face, we can advance each other and help overcome

Greenland is very open for increased cooperation with our counterparts in the North American Arctic, and welcomes innovative ideas of how this can be realized. We are looking forward to the continued discussions on how we can

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With these words, I wish us all a useful debate.

Qujanaq – Thank you.

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