The Arctic Frontiers’ program has offered many topics and presentations as wells as the opportunity to discuss the many different challenges present in the Arctic.
Among the speakers, was the current President of the Arctic Council David Balton. He emphasized that despite the many worries he had repeatedly heard over the last couple of months, since it became clear that the next President of the United States was to be Trump, the US Arctic strategy had been stable and would remain so in the years to come.
Another speaker was the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjátó. Hungary had recently been given observer status in the Arctic Council based on their security and energy situation, as the minister explained.
The Arctic Economic Council, which is part of the Arctic Council, presented a session on ‘Telecommunications – Challenges to connectivity’. Here the AEC presented a new report on ‘Arctic Broadband, Recommendations for an Interconnected Arctic’ with their recommendations for the future development of telecommunication in the Arctic.
Tromø’s Mayor Kristin Røymo put focus on communication in her speech. She encouraged to keep the channels open and highlighted the important connection between west and east in the Arctic, not just south and north where the focus is placed mainly at the moment.
Minister for Trade and Industry, Elena Tikhonova from the Russian city of Murmansk, drew a parallel to the extinction of the dinosaurs. In her opinion, this event could have occurred because of the lack of communication – “and that we must work to prevent in the Arctic”.
