The Arctic Council’s Search And Rescue Agreement: A Milestone

The Arctic Council (consisting of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the U.S.A.) achieved a milestone in its short history on May 12, 2011 by concluding, in Nuuk, Greenland, the "Agreement on cooperation on Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue in the Arctic". This "SAR Agreement" is the Council's first legally binding international agreement, and resulted from years of effort by the Council's staff and the governments of the Arctic Council's Member States (the "Parties").

The Agreement aims to strengthen cooperation and coordination in the Arctic in aeronautical and maritime search and rescue operations carried out on the "territory" of the Parties (meaning their respective land areas, internal waters and territorial seas, together with the superjacent airspace). Such operations are to be carried out on the basis of the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue 1979 (the "SAR Convention") and the