Arctic Council States on Wednesday signed a new, legally-binding agreement on combating oil spills in the Arctic.
The Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response in the Arctic will substantially improve procedures for preventing and responding to oil spills to protect the region's waters.
The deal was signed at a meeting of the ministers from the eight Arctic states and representatives of the Arctic Indigenous Peoples in Sweden's northernmost city of Kiruna at the conclusion of Sweden's two-year Chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
The ministerial session adopted a vision statement that outlines the Arctic states' and indigenous permanent participants' joint vision for the development of the region. "This sends an important signal to the rest of the world," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt after the meeting.
Canada assumed the Chairmanship of the Council for 2013-15 with the theme Development for the People of the North.
The Ministers also signed the Kiruna Declaration, which sets out the work of the Council during the Canadian Chairmanship
The Arctic Council program will include the establishment of a Circumpolar Business Forum to provide new opportunities for business to engage with the Council; continued work on oil pollution prevention; and action to address short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon and methane.
A number of important reports were presented to the Ministers at the meeting.
The Council was expanded by granting the so-called observer status to six new states -- China, Italy, India, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
The Arctic Council intergovernmental forum, comprising the United States, Canada, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden was formed in 1996 to protect the Arctic region's environment and its indigenous peoples.
Russia has stepped up exploration of its Arctic oil and gas reserves in recent years, raising concern by environmental activists who say accidents in the region could have dire consequences because of fragility of the Arctic ecosystem and the complexity of cleaning up spills in remote areas.
The Arctic territories, believed to hold vast untapped oil and gas reserves, attracted economic and political interests of countries in the region, with the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark staking claims to it. As a result of climate change, temperatures have increased and sea ice reduced making hydrocarbon deposits under the Arctic Ocean increasingly accessible.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.