For the first time ever, an Arctic Council ministerial meeting has ended without a joint declaration

Staunch U.S. opposition to climate change language scuttled last-minute efforts to build a compromise on a joint declaration.

A meeting of all eight Arctic foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, ended on Tuesday in Rovaniemi, Finland without a joint declaration to signal common ambitions and direction for the work of the Arctic Council for the coming two years. This is the first Arctic Council ministerial meeting to end without such a declaration.