And I won't have to complete my thought.
The other issue of the extended continental shelf is very interesting. The slide shows the region of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans where Canada began its scientific efforts to delineate the maximum extent of its continental shelf in accordance with international law.
The United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is a scientific organization and does not settle disputes or overlapping claims. It deals with the interface between international and national zones.
I can discuss that further in the questions.
On cooperation with our neighbours, there's a continued cooperation with all our neighbours, and I know this is a theme that our other departmental colleagues have indicated. We cooperate closely with our American friends, especially on icebreaking and surveying of the seabed. We cooperate with the Danes. We cooperate with our Russian friends across the sea, particularly when it comes to issues where we can join them vis-à-vis the legal status of passages.
One last thing before I close. The ministerial conference in Ilulissat in Greenland in May 2008 was specifically between the five coastal Arctic states. It was a meeting of those states that have a right to delimit their continental shelf. It was not really about social or other issues; it was purely about the legal rights to continental shelf delimitation. We all agreed to work within an international legal framework, one that had been developed over 40 years and is now considered the Law of the Sea. That declaration was an attempt to at least shut down some of the speculation in the press and other places that said that for some reason there was a race on to the north, and we indicated quite clearly that this was a cooperative adventure.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.