The Moscow Meeting
been ongoing between members of these two
The meeting was well prepared based on earlier
countries prior to the Stockholm meeting. Some
IASC material, and the Chairman had circulated a full
revisions to the Moscow draft were accepted. Fur-
draft text of a potential report. Most of the draft
thermore, it was time for the five-member Working
text was easy to agree on or modify. It was more
Group (WG) to report back to all eight Arctic coun-
a question of ‘fine tuning,’ as Canada and the USSR
tries, informing them of the current version of the
had nominated senior persons from their ministries
text, asking them for comments, and suggesting
of foreign affairs; i.e., not having attended earlier
that all eight countries nominate a member to the
IASC meetings.
IASC Planning Group.9
The meeting was held 12-14 July 1988 at the In-
As a follow-up to the Gorbachev speech in Murmansk,
stitute of Geography, Russian Academy of Science
a major international Arctic science conference was
(RAS) and produced the document “Proposal for an
being planned for December 1988 in Leningrad,
Organizational Structure of an International Arctic
USSR. As all working group members planned to
Science Committee (IASC).” The main obstacle was
attend this conference, it was agreed that a meet-
reaching an agreement on non-Arctic representa-
ing of the IASC Planning group would be held in ad-
tives becoming full members of the IASC Council.
vance of that conference. At the Leningrad meeting,
A compromise was reached with the inclusion of a
10-11 December 1988, the Planning Group agreed
footnote, and thereafter we were able to enjoy a
on a revised version (see: IASC. 1988. Founding Arti-
good dinner.
cles, Leningrad 10-11 December 198810). This text
8
was then circulated to all eight countries asking for
However, this footnote lasted only some hours, as
national comments by appropriate, national bodies.
the Chairman was called to the Legal department of
These comments are summarized in “IASC—Survey
the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs the next day.
of Comments.”11
During that meeting, the Head of the department
made it abundantly clear that this footnote was
not acceptable to the USSR. A heated discussion
ensued, in which the main reasons for having
non-Arctic countries as equal partners on the IASC
Council were presented.
The message was clear; we had to prepare for a new
round of discussions in the IASC Planning Group.
The next meeting of the Planning Group was held
22-23 October 1988 in Stockholm