Arctic Circle (organization) only eight countries with a speaking role: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. The establishment of the Arctic Circle has raised concerns that the organization may give countries such as China, India, and Singapore a greater voice in Arctic affairs. The Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail called it "a move that seems certain to irk some northern nations" and added that it "will be seen as complicating, if not challenging, the primacy of the Arctic Council in the rapidly changing north." "The question," wrote environmental journalist Irene Quaile, "is which forum will turn out
Arctic Circle (organization) discuss Arctic matters. Speakers to have attended the Arctic Circle Assembly have included Ban Ki-moon, Nicola Sturgeon, Aleqa Hammond, Lisa Murkowski, Philippe Couillard, and François Hollande, who delivered a keynote speech at the 2015 Assembly as President of France. During his speech, Hollande discussed the importance of the Arctic as an arena for international climate action. Situating the Arctic on the front lines of anthropogenic planetary warming, President Hollande expressed optimism that global leaders would make an agreement on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the then-upcoming 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, and urged global leaders to strengthen