CNN – June 26, 2023

After the pandemic and war in Ukraine, and the inflation shock that followed, the global economy is in a precarious state. The last thing it needs right now is another nasty surprise.

That’s what it nearly got at the weekend as disaffected Russian mercenaries marched toward Moscow, drawing a stark warning from President Vladimir Putin that the country was on the brink of a 1917-style “civil war.”

The armed insurrection has been defused — for now — but the most serious challenge to Putin’s authority in 23 years could still usher in a period of turmoil and change.

“Putin has total chaos now,” Yale professor and Russia expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld told CNN.

Russia has dropped out of the ranks of the top 10 economies in the world, with a gross domestic product roughly the size of Australia’s, but it remains one of the biggest suppliers of energy to global markets — including China and India — despite Western sanctions imposed in the wake of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Analysts at Rystad Energy said bouts of geopolitical uncertainty in major oil-producing nations over the past 35 years — ranging from civil unrest to coup attempts, armed conflicts and changes of governments — had on average added 8% to the price of oil in the five days after the triggering event.

Any meaningful loss of Russian energy would force China and India to compete with Western nations for supplies from other producers. If political chaos restricts exports of other commodities, such as grains or fertilizer, that could also send supply and demand out of whack. And that could push up prices for everyone.

Richard Bronze, head of geopolitics and co-founder at Energy Aspects, said markets would now need to figure out the extent to which prices should rise to reflect the greater risk to Russian supply, a view shared by other analysts.

“This seemingly attempted coup only brings uncertainty, which could be reflected through into higher prices,” Matt Smith, lead Americas oil analyst at Kpler said. “Such upheaval and uncertainty as we have seen in recent days could bring support to prices given the potential for supply disruptions — and the fear of them — that wasn’t a consideration prior to the weekend.”

Global energy and food prices shot up in the wake of last year’s invasion of Ukraine, turbocharging inflation in Europe and the United States. It has fallen from multi-decade highs since, but the battle to control prices is not over and is now in a decisive phase.

‘Critical juncture’

“The last leg of the journey to restore price stability will be the hardest,” the Bank for International Settlements — the bank for central banks — said in its annual report Sunday.

There was a “material risk that an inflation psychology will take hold,” leading to what economists describe as a wage-price spiral, it said.

“The global economy is at a critical juncture. Stern challenges must be addressed,” general manager Agustin Carstens told the annual general meeting of the BIS in Basel.

Signs that global energy demand could weaken this year as economies slow have pushed US crude prices down by nearly 14% so far this year to just under $70 a barrel. (It peaked above $120 a year ago.) The international benchmark — Brent crude — is down by a similar margin.

But anything that could jeopardize Russia’s ability to keep supplying global energy markets will be watched anxiously by policymakers in the West, and by the country’s biggest customers in Asia.

“If anything … disrupts those flows, then that would definitely be a an upside risk for oil prices, particularly as we’re already moving into a part of the year when global demand for oil is expected to significantly exceed supply,” Bronze said.

A new Venezuela?

Libya and Venezuela provide cautionary tales of how civil war and internal political strife can savage energy exports. Libya’s oil production dropped from about 1.7 million barrels per day to a record low of just 365,000 in 2020, according to the US Energy Information Agency. Venezuelan production also hit a multi-decade low that same year, according to analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations.

Russia is a much more important player. At just under 10 million barrels per day, it produces about 10% of global crude oil demand. And with total oil exports of nearly 8 million barrels per day, Russia is the second biggest power by a wide margin after Saudi Arabia in the OPEC+ alliance of leading energy producers.

Western sanctions have had the desired effect of reducing the amount of money Moscow earns from energy, but Russia’s oil exports — in volume terms — have rebounded to levels seen before it invaded Ukraine as China and India mop up barrels shunned by G7 nations.

Bronze, at Energy Aspects, was cautious about drawing parallels with Libya and Venezuela. A better comparison would be the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. It took a long time for the Russian oil industry to recover from that.

“You had real issues in terms of investment and real issues in terms of stability in the oil sector, which had already been heavily damaged in the last years of the Soviet Union,” he added.

Sonnenfeld told CNN that the risk that Russian upheaval could ripple out to weaken the global economy had fallen over the past 18 months. The Ukraine war had backfired by forcing Europe to pivot to alternative sources, he added.

Though it is too early to say anything will happen or change, “this is by no means over, and so it does raise new questions about what might follow,” Bronze said.

Sri Lanka Cricket – July 4, 2023

Athapaththu first Sri Lanka player to top MRF Tyres ICC Women’s ODI player rankings

Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu has become the first player from her country to top the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings after starring in a 2-1 series win over New Zealand in the ICC Women’s Championship.

The left-handed opener has thus emulated Sanath Jayasuriya, who is the only Sri Lanka player to top the ODI batting rankings for men, for 181 days between September 2002 and May 2003.

Athapaththu’s two centuries in three matches have lifted her six places, overtaking the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur, Meg Lanning and Laura Wolvaardt and displacing Australia’s Beth Mooney, who was at the top of the batting charts since 10 May.

Athapaththu won ‘player of the match’ awards for her 108 not out off 83 balls in the first match and 140 not out off 80 in the final match. She was also named ‘player of the series’, making a rapid rise from seventh position, her previous career-best ranking.

Only two other Sri Lanka players have reached number one position in the women’s rankings, both in the year 2014 – left-arm seam bowler Udeshika Prabodhani (T20I bowling) and Shashikala Siriwardene (T20I all-rounders).

Athapaththu, who has scored all her country’s top 10 individual scores in women’s ODIs, is currently at the highest-ever points tally by a Sri Lanka woman in ODIs with 758 rating points. The next best is just 587 by Dedunu Silva, who also has the next highest-ranking, reaching 11th position in April 2010.

Other Sri Lanka players to advance are Kavisha Dilhari (up 19 places to 37th among batters) and Prabodhani (up 14 places to 32nd among bowlers).

Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Sophie Devine has shot up six places to 13th after smashing a match-winning 137 in the second ODI of the series in Galle.

In the latest rankings update, which also considers performances in the ICC Women’s Championship series in the Caribbean in which the West Indies prevailed 2-0 over Ireland, Ireland opener Gaby Lewis has progressed five places to 21st after her unbeaten 95 in the final match.

For the West Indies, Shamilia Cornell (up four places to joint-24th) and Afy Fletcher (up 14 places to 32nd) have moved up the bowlers’ list.

In the T20I rankings, Sophie Dunkley (up four places to 16th) and Amy Jones (up one places to 25th) have moved up the batting rankings after the first match of the England-New Zealand series while Sarah Glenn (up one place to third) and Jess Jonassen (up four places to 18th) have moved up the bowling rankings.

The Japan Times – June 24, 2023

Japan will issue new banknotes as early as July next year in their first renewal since 2004, a source familiar with the matter said Saturday, putting the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism,” on the new ¥10,000 bill.

The new ¥5,000 note will feature Umeko Tsuda, an educator who pioneered women’s higher education, while the new ¥1,000 note will feature microbiologist Shibasaburo Kitasato, who developed a serum therapy for tetanus.

The backs of the three banknotes will feature images of the Tokyo Station building, wisteria and a work of Mount Fuji by ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, respectively. They will include holograms to prevent forgery.

The notes, to be issued by the Bank of Japan, are currently being printed by the National Printing Bureau, the source said.

Hindustan Times – July 02, 2023

Unlike what two-time ODI World Cup winners West Indies incurred on Saturday evening at the Harare Sports Club, fellow former champions Sri Lanka added to their magnificent and unbeaten run in the ongoing Qualifiers event as they beat hosts Zimbabwe in the Super Six clash in emphatic fashion to book their flight tickets to India for the 2023 ODI World Cup, slated to begin from October 5 onwards.

Having won a good toss earlier in the day, Dilshan Madushanka and Mahesh Theekshana dominated the proceedings at two different stages to to bundle out Zimbabwe for just 165 runs. The home team had little to do after that, and later was completely shut by a century stand from the openers before Pathum Nissanka carried the charge single-handedly with his unbeaten ton to wrap up the chase in just 33.1 overs, winning by nine wickets.

Madushanka starred with the new ball for Sri Lanka, justifying captain Dasun Shanaka’s decision to bowl first. He picked three wickets in his opening spell, before Zimbabwe’s fourth-wicket pair of Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza offered some resistance. En route to their 68-run stand, the former notched up his half-century as well, but Shanaka provided with the breakthrough before Theekshana ran riot through the middle and lower order with his 4 for 25.

The 1996 winners have now become the first team from the ODI World Cup Qualifiers event to seal their berth for the blockbuster event in India. Zimbabwe will now have to rest their fate on the result of their final Super Six game, against Scotland, next week.

“Coming into Qualifiers is always tough. But still if you go through the process, with the team we’ve got here, we know we’re going to qualify. Credit to other teams, some of the teams gave us some good fight in between but still we are the better side,” Shanaka said in the post-match presentation.

“It’s a big achievement. What we have done in the past in World Cups, it’s must needed for SL to appear on the big stage. World Cup ahead is the main focus for us. Waiting to deliver there as well.”

Sri Lanka have one more game to go in the Super Six, against West Indies, on July 7 as they await for their opponent for the final.

The Guardian – 23 June, 2023

While Peru’s archeology heritage began in the 20th century to attract millions of tourists to locations such as Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines, the country’s cuisine remained one of South America’s best-kept secrets.

But in the last two decades, Peru’s food – a product of its rich range of crops, ecosystems and a particular history – has become a global brand, with restaurants opening in cities from San Francisco to Sydney.

Now, after years of plaudits and prizes, Central restaurant in Lima has been voted the world’s best, crowning the global conquest of Peruvian cuisine.

It is the first South American restaurant to win the title, and three other Lima restaurants were in the top 50, meaning the Peruvian capital took more slots than any other city.

Central’s fine dining menu showcases Peru’s unique spread of biodiversity by taking diners through “15 different Peruvian ecosystems, categorised by altitude – from 15 metres under the Pacific Ocean to 4,200 metres up in the Andes,” according to World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

“It’s not about being number one, it’s not about being the best, it’s about what we do every single day. We love what we do,” said the restaurant’s co-founder and head chef, Virgilio Martínez, accepting the award in the Spanish city of Valencia last week.

His wife and Central’s co-founder, Pía Léon, saw her solo project Kjolle reach the top 50 this year, making 28th place. The two other Lima eateries on the list were Maido, led by the award-winning Japanese-Peruvian chef Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura, at number six, and Mayta in 47th.

Fusion is key to Peru’s cuisine. Over centuries, techniques brought by waves of incomers – from Spanish invaders to enslaved Africans to indentured Cantonese, as well as Italian, Japanese, and Arabic immigrants – built on a rich foundation of Indigenous food and crops. From the high altitudes of the Andes to the fish-rich Pacific and the Amazonian rainforest, all helped to create uniquely Peruvian cuisines including comida criolla, Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei, and Chifa, Chinese-Peruvian fare.

“That’s the fun part of Peru, we don’t reject other cultures,” Tsumura told the Guardian in a recent interview. “We embrace them and we think how to make them much more tasty, or, I would say, we look at how we can apply those flavours, techniques and ingredients to our cuisine.

“That’s what makes us free with Peruvian cuisine and inclusive – not just with food but with music, with art and with many other elements in society. You can see how many countries have built our culture in a very diverse way.”

Born in Peru to a family with roots in Osaka, Tsumura trained as a sushi chef in Japan before returning to Lima and founding Maido with his own brand of Nikkei cuisine. “An explosion of flavours in your mouth” is how he sums up his restaurant’s culinary experience. “We’re always looking for very intense sensations.”

Tsumura’s flair and Martínez’s honed precision rely on Peru’s rich array of ingredients. First among them, the humble potato. Just a handful of Peru’s 4,000-plus varieties of potato have fed the hungry everywhere from the Americas to Eurasia. Maize has grown in what is now Peru for six millennia; historians believe it was brought from Central America. The tomato, the basis for Italian cuisine, originated in the country’s Andean valleys.

“I think all countries have something unique which is theirs,” León said. “In our case, it’s the confidence and security we have with our food.”

One of very few female chefs in the new generation pushing Peru’s gastronomic boom, Léon knew from a young age that creating in the kitchen was her future. Kjolle, which sits in the same airy building as Central in Lima’s bohemian Barranco neighbourhood, is a “more intuitive concept which doesn’t concentrate on the altitude, rather on the product, which allows us to be a little freer,” she said.

Ignacio Medina, a Spanish-Peruvian food critic based in Lima, said the restaurants’ recognition was crucial for Peru as it was facing tough regional competition in the food stakes from Mexico and Argentina. Even so, Peruvian restaurants have been a fixture in the top 50 list for close to a decade.

“Now Peruvian cuisine can become a world trend again,” Medina said. “With this, it regains leadership and re-emerges as a reference point.”

Tsumura believes the enthusiasm Peruvians share for their national cuisine is what unifies and defines them, in a country where gaping racial and class divisions were laid bare by deadly state repression of anti-government protests earlier this year.

“Peruvian cuisine has always been good, the only problem was actually that we didn’t believe it. It’s as simple as that,” Tsumura said.

Daily Express – Jun 26, 2023

A supervolcano in Italy could erupt and cause mass extinctions, obliterate crops, and spark mass evacuations of nearby communities, scientists have warned. 

The crust of the Campi Flegrei volcano, near Naples in southern Italy, is becoming weaker and more prone to rupturing, “making an eruption more likely”, research recently published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment said. 

It could erupt soon, a new study states, and it would be the first time since 1538. 

If the volcano erupts, it could launch molten rock and volcanic gases high into the stratosphere.

It could lead to 100ft tsunamis, leading sulfur, and toxic ash to spread causing fears it could destroy crops and wildlife, plunging the Earth into a global winter.

Most at risk are the roughly 500,000 people whose homes lie near the supervolcano – many of them in the coastal town of Pozzuoli.

Campi Flegrei, which means Burning Fields in Greek, is a large region of supervolcanic calderas – large depression formed when a volcano erupts and collapses. 

It is located about an hour drive away from another famous Neapolitan volcano – Vesuvius – it is only visible from the sky as it doesn’t look like a traditional mountain but, rather, it is shaped as a gentle depression 12-14km across – thus is known as a caldera.

But a recent rise in the number of earthquakes in the area has concerned scientists, with more than 600 recorded in April alone. 

Local resident Francesco Cammarota told the Guardian: “Some days there are more than one. It’s frightening, especially at night. One day it will just go off.”

Supervolcanoes refer to volcanoes that can produce eruptions of the highest magnitude, reaching an 8 on the Volcano Explosivity Index. During eruptions, they can expel more than 240 cubic miles (1,000 cubic kilometers) of material.

Its biggest eruption ranked as a category 7 – which can be disastrous, according to Live Science.

Since the eruption almost 500 years ago, the area has been gently sinking due to rising magma pushing the ground above it up, with the city of Pozzuoli lifted almost four metres in the last 70 years.

ABC News – June 20, 2023

 Glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates across the Hindu Kush Himalayan mountain ranges and could lose up to 80% of their volume this century if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t sharply reduced, according to a report.

The report Tuesday from Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development warned that flash floods and avalanches would grow more likely in coming years, and that the availability of fresh water could be curtailed for nearly 2 billion people who live downstream of 12 rivers that originate in the mountains.

Ice and snow in the Hindu Kush Himalayan ranges are an important source of water for those rivers, which flow through 16 countries in Asia and provide fresh water to 240 million people in the mountains and another 1.65 billion downstream.

“The people living in these mountains who have contributed next to nothing to global warming are at high risk due to climate change,” said Amina Maharjan, a migration specialist and one of the report’s authors. “Current adaptation efforts are wholly insufficient, and we are extremely concerned that without greater support, these communities will be unable to cope.”

Various earlier reports have found that the cryosphere — regions on Earth covered by snow and ice — are among the worst affected by climate change. Recent research found that Mount Everest’s glaciers, for example, have lost 2,000 years of ice in just the past 30 years.

“We map out for the first time the linkages between cryosphere change with water, ecosystems and society in this mountain region,” Maharjan said.

Among the key findings from Tuesday’s report are that the Himalayan glaciers disappeared 65% faster since 2010 than in the previous decade, and that reducing snow cover due to global warming will result in reduced fresh water for people living downstream. The study found that 200 glacier lakes across these mountains are deemed dangerous, and the region could see a significant spike in glacial lake outburst floods by the end of the century.

The study found that communities in the mountain regions are being affected by climate change far more than many other parts of the world. It says changes to the glaciers, snow and permafrost of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region driven by global warming are “unprecedented and largely irreversible.”

Effects of climate change are already felt by Himalayan communities, sometimes acutely. Earlier this year the Indian mountain town of Joshimath began sinking and residents had to be relocated within days.

“Once ice melts in these regions, it’s very difficult to put it back to its frozen form,” said Pam Pearson, director of the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, who was not involved with the report.

She added, “It’s like a big ship in the ocean. Once the ice starts going, it’s very hard to stop. So, with glaciers, especially the big glaciers in the Himalayas, once they start losing mass, that’s going to continue for a really long time before it can stabilize.”

Pearson said it is extremely important for Earth’s snow, permafrost and ice to limit warming to the 1.5 degrees Celsius agreed to at the 2015 Paris climate conference.

“I get the sense that most policymakers don’t take the goal seriously but, in the cryosphere, irreversible changes are already happening,” she said.

BBC – June 29, 2023

Sri Lanka began a five-day bank holiday from Thursday to allow the crisis-hit nation to restructure $42bn (£33.2bn) in domestic debt.

The country is facing its worst economic crisis since it won independence from the British in 1948.

There are fears that the government’s restructuring plan could lead to volatility in financial markets.

Debt restructuring can involve the extension of the period over which a loan is repaid.

“The government’s action to call an extended public holiday means it obviously saw the risk of bank runs,” Alex Holmes, a senior economist at Oxford Economics, told the BBC.

Local media also quoted analysts as saying that the holiday was announced to provide a suitable buffer for any potential market reactions to significant financial announcements.

Earlier this week, Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe reassured the public that that the restructuring would “not lead to a collapse of the banking system”.

On Wednesday, Mr Wickremesinghe’s office said his cabinet had approved a restructuring proposal by the country’s central bank. The plan will be submitted to parliament for approval over the weekend.

“(The) government expects the entire process to conclude while the markets are closed during these five days,” Sri Lanka central bank chief Nandalal Weerasinghe said.

Mr Weerasinghe added that “local depositors are assured of the safety of their deposits and interests will not be affected”.

The move to restructure domestic debt comes as the country is struggling to come out of its worst economic crisis.

Last year, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt with international lenders for the first time in its post-independence history.

However, there have been several important lifelines extended to the country in recent months.

The World Bank has just granted it $700m, following a $3bn bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The World Bank said in a statement on Thursday that it would provide support in a “phased approach”.

The organisation added that it has allocated $500m to budgetary support, while the remaining $200m would be used to “provide better-targeted income and livelihood opportunities to the poor and vulnerable”.

The IMF’s bailout in March, which was nearly a year in the making, was viewed as a massive lifeline for Sri Lanka.

However, the bailout came with conditions, such as requiring the country to make “swift progress” on restructuring its debts.

In March, the IMF said Sri Lanka had secured financing assurances from all its major creditors, including China and India, which paved the way for the bailout.

The IMF has so far released around $330m in funds to Sri Lanka, with the rest due in disbursements over four years.

The economic crisis

Sri Lanka’s economy has been hit hard by the pandemic, rising energy prices, populist tax cuts and inflation of more than 50%.

A shortage of medicines, fuel and other essentials also helped to push the cost of living to record highs, triggering nationwide protests which overthrew the ruling government in 2022.

Sri Lanka’s central bank outlined the extent of the country’s economic crisis earlier this year.

According to its latest annual report, “several inherent weaknesses” and “policy lapses” helped to trigger the severe economic problems that engulfed the South Asian nation.

The central bank also forecast that the Sri Lankan economy would shrink by 2% this year, but expand by 3.3% in 2024.

Its prediction is more optimistic than that of the IMF, which forecasted economic growth of 1.5% in Sri Lanka next year.

Global News – June 27, 2023

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on his way to meet with Nordic leaders ahead of an upcoming NATO summit and as uncertainty looms over the future of the Arctic.

Trudeau is slated to travel to Iceland, which will host leaders from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway over the next two days for an annual gathering of Nordic prime ministers.

Leaders from Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands are also attending.

Iceland’s government says “societal resilience” will be discussed at the meeting, which is being staged on a group of islands known as Vestmannaeyjar and coincides with the 50th anniversary of a volcanic eruption there.

Trudeau is to appear as a guest, and his office says it is a chance to advance common interests with the Nordic nations, which range from protecting the environment and developing clean energy to tackling security challenges.

The talks come a little more than two weeks before leaders travel to Lithuania to meet with NATO allies and discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

World leaders also kept a watchful eye on internal strife in Russia this weekend after mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin led troops from his private Wagner Group in an armed rebellion as he called for the ouster of the country’s defence minister.

The move seemed poised to threaten President Vladimir Putin’s decades-long hold on power, but tensions de-escalated quickly on Saturday after the Kremlin announced a deal that halted Prigozhin’s march on the capital city of Moscow. The arrangement will see Putin’s one-time protege move to Belarus and avoid prosecution for his role in the short-lived rebellion, while Wagner Group troops will return to Ukraine where they’ve been fighting alongside soldiers from the Russian army.

Trudeau said Saturday that Canada would be monitoring the situation closely, and foreign affairs ministers from the G7 held a call to discuss the situation before the deal was announced.

“There’s ongoing co-operation among these countries,” Roland Paris, a former senior adviser to Trudeau and director of the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, said of the leaders gathering in Iceland. “The Arctic has become a strategically more important part of the world as the ice melts.

“Each of these northern countries has a very clear interest in ensuring the security and sovereignty of their territory.”

WATCH: The turmoil in Russia with the Wagner Group is overshadowing a summit of Nordic nations in Iceland, which has seen Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attending to boost cooperation of Arctic partners. Touria Izri explains.

Nordic countries, including Canada and the United States, hit pause on working with Russia through the Arctic Council after its invasion of Ukraine.

That has thrown what co-operation looks like in the region into serious question, Paris said.

Observatory for Arctic Policy and Security director Mathieu Landriault said the issue remains “fragile,” adding that without co-operation with Russia _ which has a huge Arctic coastline _ the council does not have data related to how climate change is affecting a major part of the region.

Landriault suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused Canada to “reassess” its position in the Arctic.

NATO has also been paying increasing attention to the Arctic in light of aggression from both Russia and China, Paris added.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned of such threats during a visit to a military base in northern Alberta last summer, noting China has declared itself a “near Arctic” state and climate change was opening up access to the region.

Trudeau, who accompanied Stoltenberg on that visit, touted plans to spend billions on bolstering Canada’s military, including modernizing the aging Canada-U.S. Norad system which monitors Arctic aerospace.

Paris said he expects Trudeau may draw attention to those same commitments during his visit to Iceland.

“The fact is we are far behind where we need to be in order to secure the Arctic in a world where it will increasingly be an area of geopolitical competition.”

Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have all voiced support for Ukraine since Russia launched its attack.

All belong to NATO, save for Sweden, which is trying to join. Canada was the first country to ratify its request. It also backed Finland’s membership, which was officially recognized in April.

Landriault said the meeting in Iceland serves as a chance for Canada and the Nordic countries to demonstrate support for Sweden’s entry into NATO, which Turkey and Hungary have not endorsed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with the Nordic leaders in May, and Trudeau made a surprise visit to Kyiv earlier this month.

Besides a shared interest in security, the Canadian government also has trade interests with the five Nordic countries, with two-way trade totalling roughly $13 billion last year.

Canada is also home to the largest number of Icelandic immigrants and descendants outside that country.

The two countries view each other as like-minded and share interests on a range of issues, including the development of carbon capture and storage technology and ocean protection.

Trudeau’s visit follows Iceland President Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson’s recent visit to Canada, where the pair discussed expanding co-operation in green energy, ocean technology and aquaculture.

That trip, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon’s visit to Finland earlier this year and a 2022 Canada-Denmark agreement to resolve the border dispute over Hans Island were all signs that Canada was looking to enhance its diplomatic focus on Nordic countries, said Landriault.

“It’s likely to increase,” he said.