Politics in the British Isles projects amongst the various countries in the Isles have been undertaken, often around infrastructure and energy. For example, the governments of Ireland, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are collaborating on the ISLES project, which will facilitate the development of offshore renewable energy sources, such as wind, wave and tidal energy, and renewable energy trade between Scotland, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Through the auspices of the British-Irish council, Ministers from the UK, Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands have agreed to work on energy cooperation and development through what is called the All Islands Approach (AIA), facilitating closer
Terminology of the British Isles excludes the Republic of Ireland. In October 2006, "The Times" quoted a spokesman for the Irish Embassy in London as saying that they would discourage its use. During a stop-over visit to the Republic of Ireland in 1989, the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, indicated that he assumed Ireland's head of state was Queen Elizabeth II, given that she was the British Queen and his officials said that Ireland was a part of the British Isles. In Northern Ireland, some nationalists reject the term and instead use "these islands", "these isles" or "Britain and Ireland" as an alternative.