you're watching are two let's not have a look at the top stories for this hour the best scientific minds have gathered in moscow to ensure the arctic doesn't turn into a battle for the mineral resources several nations including russia canada and the rest are in the race for the business of tons of old gas worried in the region. world leaders toppled global poverty middle east peace and world security at the un the us summit in the new york on the sidelines of russia and nato met to discuss cooperation on missile defense and aunts limits in europe. and a russian martial arts fighter with a history of violence and extremism is seeking political asylum in norway richest

while the dot sick escaped from a psychiatric facility last month. and up next iceland's president gives his state all the moscow arctic for and spotlight. hello again and welcome to spotlights the interview on r.t. i'll bring all of it in today my guest on the show is all of that are not grooms. is hosting a big international forum about the future of the art heads of state and politicians from the northern countries have gathered in moscow to discuss the problems of their reach my guest star on the show today the president. is here to discuss the arctic the islands'

a bit to join the european union and other problems faced by his country and europe in general. the warming climate is melting ice in the arctic and allowing access to areas wants unreachable by vessels. he's known as an advocate against climate change also iceland was badly hit by the economic crisis two years ago the banking system almost collapsed and has left the country having debts the president. has criticised the i.m.f. for letting down iceland. thank you very much for being with us here on this program well first of all let's

talk about let's talk about the order to climate change has has put the economic expiration of the arctic high on the agenda of the arctic nations at least yes arctic is one of the regions that. are practically untouched by human activity at least a lot of places there so what would you call the priority saving the riches of the arctic we're learning how to how to explore and how to how to utilize the riches of the region. there are many reasons why we should be concerned about the arctic but it's also interesting to note for. people living indigenous people living all over the arctic. but when the

modern times start to moving. our western civilization on the russian ship militias or with this area we gradually started to discover it but then when the cold war close to duff akkad so in fact it is only in the last twenty years or so that we have started to do the arctic. almost in a completely new way and at the same time climate change speeded up so now we have a shift to a show where the arctic war what i sometimes call the north and recession regions house become one of the most important and crucial areas. all for all of us and the number of reasons for it one day so she mentioned the vast amount of the un top to any to russia was of the world are to be find in the arctic on the north the

regions the second is that climate change is happening three times faster in that part of the world as well on the melting of the ice in greenland and in the north and reasons could have a dramatic impact on the rest of the world and then of course the third reason is that with the melting of the ice we could almost say unfortunately there will be new shipping routes opening up which will link asia to europe and america in a way that it will shorten the distance by almost a half and have a name park on the world trade almost like the sure wish come out of the one hundred years ago and in all of this you are absolutely correct the concerns for the in the moment and the pressure away show if this is. of the ocean on the long

resources is of paramount importance the corporation among the countries in the region russia my own country and the united states canada on the all the nordic countries is absolutely crucial because we have to balance how we all wish the arctic with the environmental sustainability the arctic is believed to contain a quarter of the world and discovered oil and gas five nations are claiming their right to a share of the riches spotlights in the dimmy there are reports. global warming is heating up the debate over who owns which part of the arctic the melting ice allows exploration and development of previously inaccessible oil and gas in the area russia the us canada denmark and norway have all voiced their claims to a piece of the arctic reaches three of the five nations pinned their hopes on the

among us of reach russia was the first to submit to the un its claim that under war to mountain range in two thousand and one the country argued the reach was an extension of the russian continental shelf the you when asked for more evidence to collected russian scientists went forty three hundred meters under the arctic ice in two thousand and seven the team had it by our two children give it some pose of the shelf and celebrated the first expedition of its kind by planting a russian flag on the seabed at the north pole the west labelled a symbolic gesture s. political issues in russia of them to really stick conditions russia has also invoked on a diplomatic solution it's signed an agreement with norway bringing to an end the footie you dispute over a potential it and the jury each area in the barents sea the russian and canadian foreign ministers have agreed. do you when she drew on who owns what part of the

law minister preach the arctic nations i know gives a real evidence to prove their rights to parts of the disputed territory. is the president what was the reaction of ordinary iceland there is in the politicians a new country when the russians put their national flag under the ice on the north pole was it wasn't a big deal what i thought to be a be considered a very clever little p.r. exercise. not because in for us especially but because it woke up the rust of the world and i personally can't a welcomed it because i had been trying for ten years still speak about the arctic issues to people in europe in the united states and elsewhere and there was very little interest but suddenly when the russians put the flock of the bottom of the arctic ocean everybody woke up and realized times how to write so i think when we

look back only to warsaw i welcomed the opening court to the rest of the world but now we need to come together and and create a successful framework for corporation mr president. does iceland claim well like russia or like canada there's a claim its share of the arctic shelf and what do you think in general is the best way to tackle this problem in order to avoid competition and conflict one fortunately we have the law of the sea. which took a long time to create my country through our come paid for the extension of the economic zones first in the fifty's and then in the nineteen seventies. considerable role in creating the law of the she so we already have an international framework a legal frame. work well we come shoulder of the these issues and i think they can

all be dealt with within the framework of the law of the sheet the united states needs to ratify the law of the sheep but although eight thousand dropped if i did it it's already hopes of being it so i don't think that is the problem. what we need to do is to strengthen the corporation among the arctic countries so we have to build the arctic council which so far has been successful but rather limited to what being a stronger body so you will when you say limited you mean the more countries have to go i don't know no more more issues. because when it was a stop is that it was only agreed that it will deal with limited issues but it has proved to be a very effective and productive so i think now the countries the eight countries does the members of the off the council are ready to strengthen the corporation

through the offer to council so far as iceland is kong sun already a reason for being in walton these are perhaps three or four. when we look at where our. and our economic shown to reach into the arctic area so from a geographical point of view we are a part of this region secondly we are the closest neighbor to greenland and greenland is the largest ice in the arctic and the corporation between iceland and greenland. very important to link in this whole exercise but thirdly with respect to the new shipping routes the with the melting of the ice when the container ships all the shore the commercial ships come from china or ratio along the russian coast into the. antic iceland is in the middle so i love the

strategically best place to hold the countries to serve also hope or also showing station or war as a base for the potentially huge commercial traffic that will link to europe and america in these new series. and the subject i want to talk about is the european union the iceland has stayed away from joining the e.u. for a pretty long time now what in your opinion made iceland change their point of view of the subject well first of all there is already. still a debate in my country whether we should go in or not but i think the main reason was following the collapse of the banking sector and the financial crisis to years ago many people thought that maybe we had

to and to an era where smaller countries that wanted to be globally octave couldn't really maintain their own currency so probably the main reason why we moved from a sheet curation off minority for a. minority for applying to what one might europe wanting to apply in the parliament agreed was the european union currency called corp we are still concerned about the fisheries issue so i think the negotiations will have to deal with those concerns because it's optional to clear the people oh i don't want to lose control over the ocean resources or all the natural resources so in this case the outcome of the negotiations will be crucial when many countries have joined the european union in the past. the negotiations went just

a formality in our case i think they will determine whether iceland will be a member or not says that crimson the president slipped. back shortly right up to great so stay with us and. wealthy british style sign. on. the. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines in two cars a report. every month we give you the future we help you

understand how to get there and what to bring the best in science and technology from across russia and around the world. join us for technology update on our g. soon which brightened if you need soon from phones to impressions. screens for instance on t.v. dot com.

welcome back to spotlight on our northern just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is over for a ride in the grammys and the president of iceland how we started talking about the possible and membership of your country in the years which brings not only benefits but also new problems new challenges you mentioned one of them which is which is fishing which is crucial for your country another one another crucial issue maybe maybe immigration is the society in your country ready to face these new challenges no i don't think the immigration will be an issue because. there was no room. for nearly twenty years when a member of the european economic area which means that we are a member of the in the market of the european union and then secondly we also join the sharing of agreement to gether with norway so we have now for almost twenty

years lived with the shit you ation that there is a free movement of people between iceland and the european union so i don't think there will be any change with respect to the moment of the people because part of the actually although we say iceland the european union because of the european economic area agreement between the norway and the european union and because we are part of the schengen we are in many respects inside the european union but we are not part of the monetary policy we are not part of the political corp we are not part of the fisheries on the culture or policy but in number of other areas we are all intricate part of the union so it's a kind of almost you asian where the moment of the people was decided almost twenty years ago but the fact of the month. in iceland we have a relatively high proportion of people. born elsewhere by european standards we

have about six seven eight percent of the those who live in iceland were born elsewhere they come from many different countries they come from poland the nordic countries they come from. they come from the from the balkan countries and they live in the villages and towns. and so fall the homefront really in my country been any tension or conflicts us you have seen for example in denmark or in sweden us you refer to it so we have so far so good to have a harmonious relationship between those who have recently arrived in iceland from all the countries and those who live there for a long time there is a number of. optimists the advocates on the journey of the e.u. in your country who say that if or when i aslan joins the european union it will no longer have any need of remaining in the nato do you agree do

you think that that iceland this prize the it's the choice of either or or you may stay in the nato being a member of the european union always a all due respect i mean i've never heard this argument in my own country so i don't think this is a strong opinion there is no linkage in the debate tonight on between the european union discussion and the nato discussion. was of. nato but we have never had any military forces of our own so we have not been a part of the nato military corp apart from the fact that the americans had a base in ice on which they closed on the three years ago so for three years now we have not had to any military activity in my country so i don't think there is side the war situation with respect to nato or the european union. well back in two

thousand and eight i have the night from asia here the president of iceland has surprised the russian ambassador by inviting russia to use the careful i think every base in iceland what did happen what do you have in mind well what made you to make such as a political is this this is not a true story really although the us at the time of extortion is a vertical friend of mine i actually met him last night when i came to moscow but this was a story that came out in the newspapers and didn't really have any basis . what was perhaps these the the small part of this story was as i mentioned before for over half a century the american military base national and then to the bush administration decided to close the base down so now we have out the former base

area very interesting location which we have called on a flunked accent erections where we and why people to come and study we do is stop is to university be oh stop as many i.t. companies we have to stop it is done aviation college trains pilots on the air traffic controllers and all those and we have invited all the nations not just russia but all those whose son pilots an aviation people the air controllers and all those to trade out these aviation college the former american base in iceland and why do we do that because. i thought this in the middle of the atlantic so the weather conditions are sometimes very tough and there's a great and sudden mari ations in the weather so this airport is an ideal place for trading off pilots on air. control is on and if wants to waste opposition

partnership with i something they should respect us other countries are interested in i know there have been discussions between the college and china for example and we will be very happy to do well as far as i know russia rejected the this proposal it seems like it was in the other one i think it was not the proposal at all those like an idea no it was a report that came out didn't know which impressed we didn't really have any foundation whatsoever but anyway this report and the way you talk about it right now shows that iceland doesn't consider russia to be any threat well iceland there doesn't consider nato whoever also to be a threat do you really see any threat for you countries in europe in the world no not really no well that makes you pretty different from many other countries in the one which was maybe easy because you national had to kind of through well maybe we we all the normal country maybe we are in

a push to show that all the countries are called aim for we have for a long time even during the cold war heart of very productive relationship with russia for example in the fifty's. when the cold war already started russia became a crucial trading partner over icelandic fish products and we imported four decades of petroleum from russia and in fact you might think it's funny when you look back on it the american military base in iceland because they had to buy the oil on the patrol room from the ice on the companies but they have to import it from russia so this american military base in iceland or should run on russian oil or russian petroleum but during the cold war which perhaps a lot about how we look at ourselves and now as i pointed out to you before we have forced. three years been

a country without any military forces whatsoever so i think i still do example but it is possible to be an open free and secure country without basing your foreign policy or you operate shone on the premise that all the nations are threatened and with respect to the arctic on the north of new you should we look at the russia prime already partner in the a successful development off the arctic on the north the region's almost one of the reason why i am participating in this conference here in mosco because we have now for a number of years been advocating that russia on iceland on the all the countries should create a very broad construct of positive corporation mr president you mentioned the crisis and the crisis really really hit your country pretty strongly the economy which is still suffering still overcoming the results well i recently as there was a surprising victory of the best party recently founded by comedian john no

hard and you can say yeah oh well this it means that iceland is are fed up by tradition politics how would you how would you characterize the political situation in a country that seems to be very stable well i could talk about that for a long time because as you might know i was a former professor of political science and so i also have a market to make a region where you have enough time. well i better do it this is going to hit the girl you like should you referred to or was municipal election it was an election in the competence of reykjavik but there were also local elections as well and the paradoxical result of those local elections where in some towns including reykjavik new parties and new content that you're caught to great success could be interpreted. like age old type of politics. in all the parts of

the country the old polity is still maintain a stronghold but i think it is optional to clear out the banking crisis the financial crisis the economic difficulties have. routed our road normal politics in a way. new parties want evidence i also remind you. the government that was in office when the banks collapse of resigned a few months later we had to call the parliamentary elections there were protests and demonstrations in the streets of iceland which is pretty unusual so the appearance of this political party is not the only side of the new political situation within our democratic system but the important thing is that the protests always comes through though the democratic money goes so i don't think out

democratic system is in any way anyway being threatened thank you thank you very much for being with us i know you're just doing it it will be with you thank you and just a reminder that my guest on the show today was all afoot and i'm on the president all priced and this is for now from all of us here spotlight moved back with more friends than comments on what's going on in and outside russia and so then they are right and take.

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