I'm surprised I said that. I'd have to see what I said, because I'm a believer in the consensus approach. Maybe it was an absent-minded professor's moment, but I don't think I actually would have said that.
It has always seemed to me that the approach should be consensual, and if you want majority votes you're into an entirely different set-up. It's by consensus that the Arctic Council has been able to proceed to the extent it has. I favour a continuation of consensus. If the Arctic Council is to be strengthened and made more effective, it seems to me it should happen with the maintenance of consensus among the eight Arctic countries. But we should add non-Arctic countries to the table. We should bring France, Germany, and China to the table now, with full voices but not votes. In order to speed consensus, the votes would still be held by the eight, but we should hear from the others.
I think in due course the Chinese navy will be in the Arctic. You can see that coming. They are already doing the scientific research from the oceanography. This is the way some mariners start off. There's a need to include these people now and build a stronger, more efficacious Arctic Council, maintaining the consensus procedure.