The speech of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the Third International Arctic Forum The Arctic – A Territory of Dialogue VLADIMIR PUTIN: Let me say a few words more, ladies and gentlemen. I would like once again to thank our colleagues, the Presidents of Iceland and Finland, and our colleague from Canada, for finding time in their busy schedules to come here to Russia’s Far North. The 66th parallel is indeed a very northern part of our country. I already said that a third of Russia’s territory is within the Far North, and so for the Russian Federation, work in the Arctic Council, on the Far North’s problems, on developing the Northern Sea Route, and in the Arctic in general is not just of national economic importance but has a humanitarian dimension too given that we have a large number of indigenous peoples living in this part of our country. There are big interests concentrated here – economic, political, and humanitarian, as I said. It is therefore essential for us to join forces for effective work in this part of the world and in our region. It is absolutely clear now that the climate is changing. Everyone is talking about this. What is causing this change is not so important now. What matters is that it is happening. It is clear now that the northern latitudes can be open for shipping for 100 days or perhaps 150 days, and that new regions are opening up for economic activity. Of course, as we have said many times and heard today too, the Arctic is a very vulnerable region in terms of maintaining the environmental balance and the need to keep this balance, and so we must be very careful about how we go about our economic activity in the region. In this respect, it is important for us to hear the views of experts, our neighbours in the Arctic, members of the Arctic Council and even countries from outside the region that have an interest in responsible management of these territories. We talked about wildlife protection, economic activity, and protecting indigenous peoples’ lawful interests. I think it would be incorrect for me to pass over in silence the incident that took place at our offshore platform, Prirazlomnaya. I am referring to the attempt by Greenpeace members to board the platform. All the media have been talking about this. But it would be much better if people from Greenpeace joined here in this hall and expressed their views on the issues we are discussing, or set out their complaints, demands or concerns. No one is trying to brush them aside. We gather for these kinds of events precisely to discuss all of these issues. I do not know the details of the incident. They are obviously not pirates, but formally, they did attempt to board the platform. Our law enforcement officers and border guards did not know who was using Greenpeace’s name to try to board the platform. This coincided with the events that were taking place in Kenya, so anything was possible and we didn’t know just who these people were out there. What is clear is that they violated international law and came dangerously close to the platform. Humanity through the ages has always used nature to survive, and the more time passed the more this was so. At first it was hunting and gathering, then it was using mineral resources, metals, fossil fuels. Can we stop this process? Of course we cannot stop it. This is not where the issue lies. The issue is how to make rational use of nature so as to minimise the damage we do to the environment or eliminate this damage altogether. Is this a realistic goal? Overall, it is probably a major challenge, but we nonetheless must work in this direction and I think that we can achieve our goal. Hydrocarbons are being produced all around the world, including at coastal and offshore sites. We all know that when fracking is used to produce shale gas the people in nearby towns no longer have water coming out of their taps but a blackish liquid that it would be difficult to call water. This poses a huge environmental problem. People always encounter these sorts of problems in hydrocarbon production. Whether the work is offshore or on land, there are two main aspects involved. One of them is transportation, and as we know, there have often been accidents in transporting oil. The other is risks at the actual production sites. I will not repeat the details. The audience today, the experts, you all know about these tragedies. I will just mention a few of them. In 1988, I think it was, there was a terrible disaster at a platform one of the US companies was operating in the North Sea. An operator’s error caused a fire at the platform and more than 160 people were killed. A much more recent and purely environmental disaster happened when there was a gas burst in the Gulf of Mexico and a huge volume of oil escaped to the surface. This caused tremendous environmental damage. In this kind of work – underwater work was being carried out at that moment – anything can happen. Operators can make mistakes, and technology can break down, putting people’s lives and health at risk. Is it worth risking such grave consequences for the sake of carrying out PR stunts? I therefore stress the point that we are ready and willing to work with all partners, and with all of the environmental protection organisations. But our position is that this work needs to be conducted in a civilised fashion. We want not just to listen, but to hear what each of us has to say, and to take the measures needed to protect the environment. By the way, as far as offshore projects go, Russian companies are engaged in offshore work in various regions, in the Far East, the Caspian, and now in the Arctic too, and they have never had a single serious incident. I hope the fact that they all use the very latest technology means that they never will. As for continuing our work through the Russian Geographical Society’s initiative, I want to thank you all once more and assure you that we will continue to pay the utmost attention to all issues concerning the environment and protecting nature. We are very grateful to you for responding to our call to work together through the Russian Geographical Society, especially on the Arctic region’s issues. As I said at the start of my concluding remarks, this region is very vulnerable and requires particular attention from the experts and the public. I agree with my colleague from Iceland in hoping that the leaders of all of the Arctic countries will join in these efforts. We hope very much that they will give more and more attention to the issues that we discuss at this forum. Thank you very much. I hope that next time we meet we will discuss issues every bit as topical as those we discussed today. Thank you. September 25, 2013, 12:30Salekhard You can find the full version of the speech via
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 20:21:51 +0000
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