Iceland Views Arctic Oil Rush With ‘Apprehension,’ Minister Says
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Iceland, the island that suffered Europe’s biggest banking meltdown during the financial crisis, is viewing the rush to develop oil in the Arctic region with “apprehension,” Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson said.
“There’s quite a lot of excitement about it in Iceland, but also apprehension because we literally are in the affluent of the Arctic Ocean so a spillage could have some serious consequences for countries like ours, as well as the Faeroes and Greenland,” Skarphedinsson said in an interview in Nuuk. “That is why it is important that the Arctic Council takes the initiative that only the safest practices will be used.”