Foreign Affairs committee  That's a good question. I'd be speculating on just what their knowledge of the ecology of the Arctic is. They're all literate in Arctic research, and if there's collaborative science being done, I'm sure they're part of it. As to what's being done at the global level, as far as

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the benefit to northern communities arises from whether there are ports available so that ships can come and go. Otherwise, ships just drive right by. Obviously, the effect on the northern communities would be a function of discharge and all kinds of other things. Of cour

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, the Antarctic has 80% of their budget.

Foreign Affairs committee  For the Chinese, it's resources, which puts them at odds with every other Antarctic country. That's my understanding. I'm not an expert on the Antarctic, by any stretch. My understanding is that most Antarctic countries are interested in freezing territorial claims and in doing s

Foreign Affairs committee  They're all more interested. I suppose they all have longer scientific research histories in the Antarctic than they do in the Arctic. They all signed the Treaty of Svalbard when it came up in the 1920s and 1930s. China signed as the Republic of China, and that was one of the tre

Foreign Affairs committee  No.

Foreign Affairs committee  Jeepers.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a good question. Obviously, I think, the chairmanship at the Arctic Council provides that opportunity. As a function of the Arctic Council and the way it works, the way international law works, and the way the other institutions I mentioned work—the International Maritime

Foreign Affairs committee  It's an interesting debate. I would assume that Canada's Arctic Council chairmanship would be focused on the agenda of the Arctic Council, which are the international aspects of the Arctic, and that our domestic policy would focus on the domestic aspects.

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't have the actual numbers for you. The main difference between the Chinese icebreaker fleet and the South Korean and Japanese icebreaker fleet is that the South Korean and Japanese icebreaker building capacity can be allocated for private use. When companies want to build A

Foreign Affairs committee  I was told by a Chinese Arctic academic that there is considerable interest by small Chinese mining companies, so not government-owned but privately owned Chinese mining companies, in Arctic resource exploitation.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. He didn't specify whether it was offshore or not, but this is in the context of discussing who makes Arctic policy in China, if in fact there is a Chinese Arctic policy, which I don't think there is. I was interested in asking about big state-owned companies. He said yes, th

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a very good question. I think the shortest route to joining the East Asia Summit is to engage with East Asian states, particularly the ASEAN states. ASEAN drives the pace of regionalism in East Asia. The way into the East Asia Summit is to engage ASEAN, not so much China,