IASC 25 years | Page 20

Although the comments received on the Leningrad The Founding Meeting text were close to being accepted, full consensus Prior to the Founding Meeting, there was a short had not been reached, and so a hectic period of cor- final meeting of the IASC Planning Group in Dorval, respondence followed and another ‘final’ meeting QC Canada to ensure that the draft Founding Arti- was planned for 19-20 May 1989 in Helsinki. cles developed earlier and finalized by correspondence were acceptable to all. A slightly amended version of the Founding Articles (dated 20 May 1989) was drafted.13 It was At the Founding Meeting, there was the signing further agreed that if there still should be any dis- ceremony, excursions, etc. However, there were also agreement, a meeting of the ‘big three’ (Canada, the important business discussions considering the USA and the USSR) should be held later in the year way forward, such as: in Moscow. Canada did not find the Helsinki text - Definitions and Criteria acceptable (after a national consultation), so the - Rules and Procedures (draft) meeting of the big three was held in Moscow on 28- - Actions needed to set IASC in motion 29 June 1989. The basic difficulty was that Canada - Decisions and Recommendations and Russia believed that the coordination of Arctic research through an international committee should The report from the Founding Meeting in Resolute16 be controlled by nations and not by a collection of contains a comprehensive survey of planning and academies of science. At ‘the big three’ meeting, preparations for the implementation of IASC. The it was agreed that the other participating nations formal implementation had to be left to the first should be convinced that a regional board, compris- IASC Council meeting, so the appropriate nomina- ing government representatives from the eight Arc- tions could be made by the proposed national ad- tic countries, should be established that would have hering bodies. However, a solid foundation had been a level of purview over the implementation of the laid for calling the first regular meeting of the IASC programs and activities of what is now known as Council. IASC (see report on a meeting of Canadian, Soviet and American representatives14 and Chapter 1.2). Further documentation on the operational activities of IASC can be found in the Council meeting We were not 100% finished yet. However, from reports and in the various initiatives and activities that point forward, discussions on wording could be mentioned in parts of t