Source: AFP hosted by Google
By Michel Comte
25 Jan 2011, OTTAWA — Canadians rank the Arctic as their top foreign policy priority and support shifting up to 3,000 troops from UN missions abroad to defend disputed claims in the far north, a survey showed Tuesday.
This view puts Canada at odds with its seven Arctic neighbors and has "ominous implications" for cooperation in the resource-rich region, the EKOS poll's authors warned.
The results, published by the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation, show that while Canadians say they welcome working with other countries, a "clear majority" also wants to increase Canada's military presence in the Arctic.
Forty-three percent of Canadians said their government should pursue a firm line in defending Canadian sections of the Arctic.
This hard line was echoed by 36 percent of respondents in Iceland, 34 percent in Russia and 10 percent or less in the United States, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
Fifty-eight percent of Canadians also said they support a strengthened military presence in the north to protect against international threats.
"Canadians see the Arctic as our foremost foreign policy priority and one which should be resourced accordingly," said the study, noting that most respondents favor shifting military resources to the region rather than deploying them to other conflict zones.
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Initiated in 2015, the French Ministry for the Armed Forces organized the first international conference “Defence and climate: what are the stakes?”. Since then, the Ministry has been constantly adapting and developing its capacity of anticipation.
On 25 January 2019, the UN Security Council held an open debate to discuss the security implications of climate-related disaster events. The meeting, initiated by the Dominican Republic, underscored the global nature of climate-related disasters. Most speakers highlighted the need for better climate risk management as an important contribution to safeguarding international peace and security. The debate marks the beginning of a year in which climate security ranks high on the UN’s agenda.
Today, Friday 25th January 2019, the UN Security Council will hold an open debate addressing the impacts of climate-related disasters on international peace and security (at 4pm CET and 10am EST). President Danilo Medina of the Dominican Republic will chair the meeting, which will also include the participation of several member states at ministerial level.
The unabated growth of natural resource consumption raises risks that we will outstrip the capacities of ecosystems and governance institutions. At the same time, to achieve important global goals related to poverty alleviation, public health, equity and economic development such as those embodied in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we will simultaneously need more resources and better management of natural resources everywhere.