serious ruling in scheme would go to look he could scream for. no short term. hello again this is own city coming to life i'm also the headliner it's. the co-chairs the number one a share of nations around the all six. discos that claims over the region's mineral wells trying to ensure that no sort of competition doesn't destroy the from the general ecosystem it's estimated at around six of the walls on top of all it was late and the poll not only. do you want to spit some out of the united nations general assembly as the president disputes nine eleven and lunches out of western domination president obama did the job speculated that the us supported batons as

a way to control the middle east and help israel who don't lead cold in tehran to come clean about its nuclear program. under russian culture and i'm sure as to who escaped from a psychiatric hospital has turned himself into you know which you know so much he's displeasing to bend to stay in the country but just as a history of violence was almost what he showed up at immigration offices in place now in custody being investigated by organized crime police and also led by his connection to have happened when greater. and more headlines that haunted house time but first it's also his interview show spotlight and following up on our top story talks to the president of iceland all of them grimson to get his take on the form currently under way. for the full story we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. on

. graeme's. about the future of the art heads of state politicians from the northern countries have gathered to discuss the problems. today the president. is here to discuss the arctic the. to the european union and the other problems faced by his country. the warming climate is melting ice in the arctic and allowing access to areas wants unreachable by vessels these areas could contain billions of tons of oil and gas

all the countries. claiming the riches and iceland is one of them the president. has come to russia to take part in the forum. 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 debts president. has criticised the i.m.f. for letting down iceland. thank you very much for being with us here on this program first of all let's talk about. climate change has has put the economic at. gratian the arctic high are not on the agenda of the arctic nations at least the us an arctic is one of the regions that. are practically untouched by human activity at least lot of places

there so what would you call the priority saving the riches of the arctic or 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 that for. thousands of years have been people living indigenous people living all over the arctic. but when the modern times start to moving. our western civilization on the russian ship or with this area we gradually started to discover it but then one of the cold war close to doff akkad so in fact it is only in the last twenty years or so that

we have started to look got the arctic. almost in a completely new way and at the same time climate change. speeded up so now we have a she q a sure where the article war what i sometimes call the norton recession regions house become one of the most important and crucial areas. of almost and the number of reasons for it was mentioned the vast amount of the un top energy russia was of the world are to be find home in the arctic on the north of regions the second is that climate change is happening three times. foster in that part of the world. the melting of the ice in greenland in the north of reasons could have a dramatic impact on the russian of the world and then of course the third reason

is that with the melting of the we could almost say unfortunately there won't 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 an impact on the world trade almost like the show which come out of the one hundred years ago and in all of this your absolutely correct the concern for the environment and the pressure away showing off the sustainability of the ocean on the long resources is so for paramount importance and that is why 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 use 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 even the dimmy the man reports. global warming is heating up the debate over who owns which part of the arctic ice allows exploration and development of previously inaccessible oil and gas in the area russia the us canada denmark and norway have all claims to a piece of the arctic rechoose three of the five nations p. now hopes the new law manasseh of reach russia was the first. submit to the un it's claim underwood to mountain range in two thousand and one the country argued the reach was an extension of the russian continental shelf the u.

when asked for more evidence to collect it 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 rest political issues in russia of them to really stick conditions russia is also involved on a diplomatic solution it's signed an agreement with norway bringing to an end the footie you dispute over a potentially and they do each area in the barents sea the russian and canadian foreign ministers have agreed the un should rule on who owns what part of the law manasseh reach the arctic nations are no old gathering evidence to prove their rights to parts of the disputed territory. is the president what was the reaction of ordinary arslan there isn't the politicians in your country

when the russians put their national flag under the ice on the north pole was it what was it a big deal was told to be of be considered a very clever little p.r. exercise. not because. for us especially but because it walcot the russian of the world and i personally can't i 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 certainly whether the russians put the flock of the bottom of the arctic ocean everybody woke up but i realize times have the right so i think when we look back to warsaw i welcomed the opening court to the rest of the world that now we need to come together and and create a successful framework for corporation mr president. does iceland

claim well like russia 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 sheet. 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 framework where we come shoulder 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 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 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 more countries after you know i don't know no more more issues. because when it was a stop list 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 that are members of the arctic council are ready to strengthen the corporation through the offer to council so far as iceland is concerned are already a reason for being in walton these are perhaps three or four. when we look at where are. our economic shown to reach is. 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 or the shore the commercial ships come from china or ratio along the russian coasts into the atlantic iceland is in the middle so i love the strategically best place to wall the countries to serve us a hub or also serving station or war as a base for the potentially huge commercial traffic that will link

to europe and america in this new mission to. another subject i want to talk about is the european union 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 on 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 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 of minority. for

a. minority for applying to what. wanting to apply in the parliament the greek 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 see clear let the people of iceland don't want to lose control over the ocean resources or all their 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 were just a formality in our case i think they will determine whether iceland will be a member or not says and i think that crimson the president i spent my school did actually right up to great so stay with.

us here is that so much of the experience i mean to see me in my life carrying freezing assets as the polar caps melt interesting exploiting the split regions vast resources pace it could be years before the arctic. england and france tried to reason with hitler germany demands of the two land and gets its way they also have been treated a safety net to them since. the whole of europe is involved in war efforts to establish a system of collective security nine hundred thirty eight feel and it's still on the. lessons to be learned from. on our t.v.

. welcome back to spotlight time we're not often just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is over for a ride in the grammys and the president of iceland 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 fresh air which is crucial for for your country and the other one another crucial issue maybe maybe immigration. 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 way i was now for nearly twenty years been a member of the european economic area which means that we are

a member of the indian market of the european union and then secondly we also joined this agreement to gather 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 this outside the european union because of the economy european. area agreement between the norway and the european union and because we are part of the schengen we are in many respects in sight 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 an intercom part of the union so it's a kind of a motion picture if you asian where the moment of the people most excited 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 august on two 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 all over so far all the huff and really in my country been any tension or conflicts as you have seen for example in denmark or in sweden as you refer to it so we have so far so cheated 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 of joining 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. or off nato but we have never had any military forces over 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 tied to any military activity in my country so i don't think there is side the war situation with respect to nato while 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 in iceland and 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 elections where we had wide people to come on study view is stopped as the university we have stopped many i.t. companies we have stopped is done aviation college. strange pilot air traffic controllers and all those and we have invited all the nations not just russia but others to send pilots an aviation people air controllers and others to train these aviation college the former american base in iceland and why do we do that because. i don't this in the middle of the atlantic so the weather conditions are

sometimes very tough there's a great and sudden mario in the weather so this airport is some ideal place for training of pilots and air controllers on and if brushing wants to establish a partnership with ice something they should respect us all the countries are interested in i know there have been discussions between this nation college and china for example and we will be very happy to do well as far as the new russia rejected you know this proposal t. is likely it was another one i think it was not a proposal at all to was like an idea no it was a report that came out in a 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 i just wonder doesn't consider nato who are 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 easier because the 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 should cool dame 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 imported from russia. so this american military base in iceland or should run on russian oil or russian

petroleum a during the cold war which perhaps a lot about how we look at all shows 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 disavow recoat example but it is possible to be an open free and secure country without basing your foreign policy or you operate show on the premise that all the nations are threat and with respect to the arctic on the north of we'd look at the russia prime already partner in the a successful development off the arctic on the north the regions on this one of the reason why i'm participating in this conference here in mosco because we have now for a number of years been advocating that russia on iceland on the other countries should create a very broad construct if i'm 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 and 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'm a former professor of political science so i also have a mad at them and well you have enough time yeah. well i better do it this way i didn't really have 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 although local elections

in some towns including reykjavik new parties and new content that you're caught to great success could be interpreted. like a just the old type of politics in all the parts of the country the old parties still maintain a strong hold but i think it is optional to clear the banking crisis the financial crisis the economic difficulties have. rooted our road normal politics in a way. new party has swung the evidence i also remind you. the government that was in office whether the banks collapse of resigned a few months later we had to call a parliamentary election which 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 protest always comes through the democratic manuals so i don't think out democratic system is in any way any way being threatened thank you thank you very much for being with us i know you're just through a little bit too thank you and just a reminder that my guest on the show today was all of this and the president. and this is from all of us here spotlight will be back with more friends than comments on what's going on in and outside russia and so then they are right and take.

if. russia would be soon which brighter if you knew about sun move from phones to the persian. friend starts on t.v. dot com.