A Step Forwards, or a Step Backwards? Arctic Council ministerial meeting in Iqaluit (Canada)

... extremely busy and quite productive. An important intermediate milestone has been passed. New aims have been mapped out. Decisions have been taken to create new task forces and a range of framework documents on other issues. All this indicates that the Arctic Council states have succeeded, if not fully then to a significant degree, in shielding the council from the impact of the worsening relations between Russia and the West. This may be just half a step forwards, not a whole step. But it is certainly not a step backwards.