Grímsson suggests a Himalayan Council

Recently the Icelandic President, Mr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson was honoured with the Nehru Award in Delhi. In his speech after receiving the prize Mr. Grímsson suggested that the countries around Himalaya forms a Himalayan Council modelled after the Arctic Council.

Mr. Grímsson said that the Arctic Council has been a great success for the eight Arctic countries.

"The eight countries of the Arctic - the United States, Canada, Russia and the five Nordic nations - created a framework for gradual dialogue. This framework was limited at first, focussing primarily on the environment and human development, making science and research the initial pathways.

The Arctic Council has since grown into a productive forum, rich in innovative features, bringing indigenous people and esteemed officials together in a common effort.

The Arctic Climate Assessment, and another report on Arctic Human Development, published during the Icelandic Presidency of the Council a few years ago, summarized the research conducted by hundreds of scientists from all the eight countries."

The Icelandic President is fascinated of the idea of Himalaya as the third pole:

"Together with the Arctic, the Himalayas are among the main ice covered areas of the world, similarly linking large countries and small and harbouring sites where military strength has long been on display."

Mr. Grímsson feels that the Himalayan Council can be his way of paying back the Nehru Award:

"When I asked myself what I could bring to India to show my gratitude for being granted this honour, the Nehru Award, in addition to offering the research and the technological achievements of my country, it became paramount in my mind to share with you the productive model of the Arctic Council, the scholarly, diplomatic and policy experience

gathered in the last few decades by the eight Arctic countries.

The idea of a Himalayan Council, modelled on the Arctic Council where, in the 1990s, the two superpowers joined hands with smaller states, is a vision I present here today, humbly in the spirit of my longstanding friendship with India and with reference to the future of the other countries in the region.

A Himalayan Council could, like its Arctic predecessor, initially serve as a forum for the promotion of research and scientific cooperation, for a dialogue on human development, for voicing and hearing the concerns of the people who live in the mountains and witness at close hand how the changes in the water resources and the transformation of the soil cover, affect their livelihood," said Mr. Grímsson.