The topic for the meeting is “Responding to emerging challenges in the Arctic” and Deputy Ministers are expected to take part in a discussion on the leadership role of the Arctic Council. Thereafter, the meeting will focus on three items, Search and Rescue, Short-Lived Climate Forcers, and Sustaining Arctic Observation Networks. The Arctic Council is expected to present significant results on each of these areas at the Ministerial Meeting in 2011.
Mandated by Ministers in the Tromsoe Ministerial declaration, the Deputy Ministers' meeting was conceived in response to a desire for more frequent political engagement within the overall framework of the Ministerial mandate for the Arctic Council. The "emerging challenges" topic is considered an opportunity for each Deputy Minister to raise topics they feel most important. Under this theme, the issue of integrated ocean management will expectedly be raised, as will the issue of strengthening the Arctic Council.
Following this, there will be a press conference that, however, will not be about the DM meeting but solely devoted to the release of the "Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 report".
The following day, Friday 28 May, will see another innovative type of meeting, an Information Day of the Arctic Council that according to Senior Arctic Officials' plan shall take place every second year. In addition to the SAOs, Permanent Participants, Working Groups, and Observers of the Arctic Council will participate in the event.
Paradoxically, media are not invited as the meeting is aimed at improving communication within the council itself, in particular between, on the one hand, SAOs and Permanent Participants and, on the other, Working Groups and Observers.
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