National Defence committee  Observers within the Arctic Council have the ability to attend meetings when they're sitting and to support and participate in the project work of the Arctic Council. You will recall that I mentioned upwards of 100 projects that are normally active within the council. I'm sorry; I didn't write it down.

National Defence committee  Certainly the Arctic is a region of many geopolitical interests and commercial interests and, by its very definition, of different interests and competition, be they commercial or otherwise. That will only become more pronounced, as we all know that the disproportionate effects of climate change on the Arctic will, over the course of time, render it more accessible and certainly render it of higher geopolitical interest.

National Defence committee  I think I would agree. Russia certainly does identify itself as an Arctic nation, and the Arctic Council's originating declaration identifies the membership as including Arctic nations. Those points are all correct. Canada's approach in light of the current circumstances has been to keep the council as healthy as possible, with as many projects as possible operating, given the current circumstances and the fact that we simply are not operating under business as usual.

National Defence committee  The only point I would add to that is to make reference to the Arctic and northern policy framework, which really does have that base overarching domestic framework, and then on the part of Global Affairs there is the international framework, and on the part of National Defence the defence and security chapters.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for the question. I'll reiterate that the sequence is correct as you've outlined it. In March of this year, like-minded states condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We put an immediate pause on our own participation in the council and any travel into Russia, in light of the fact that Russia is the current rotating chair of the council through to 2023.

National Defence committee  Sure. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would just first of all qualify, of course, that military activity and co-operation are explicitly excluded from the work of the Arctic Council, which still does stand as a key organization in terms of its support for the environment, climate change and sustainable development co-operation.