The Ambassador Aas underlined importance of non-Arctic countries participation and involvement in the Arctic research, as climate change effects globally. Involvement of non-Arctic countries in solving challenges and issues of the Arctic is one of the Norwegian priorities for Arctic. Also there were noted other priorities as peace and stability in the Arctic, combining business activities and preserving environment in terms of oil and gas extractive industries’ gradually moving to Arctic.
The Ambassador Aas mentioned strong and long-term research collaboration in Arctic assessment between sister-universities - the Arctic University of Norway UiT and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In this regards, the Ambassador expressed the hope that due to the interest of American students in Arctic, students from the U.S. and Norway will have more opportunities to study and understand each others’ countries.
The University of Nebraska- Lincoln is a member of University of Arctic since 2016 by decision of the Council.