In a News article on www.ipy.org last week we described activities in Washington DC and Baltimore, Maryland, as part of the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. In particular, we described the special opening-day event in Washington in recognition of the 50th Anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty and with focus on IPY; the picture above shows Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and USA Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at that event. The assembled ministers, representing Antarctic Treaty nations and Arctic Council nations, adopted, by acclimation, a Ministerial Declaration on the International Polar Year and Polar Science. We thank many people, friends of IPY in various national ministries and in leading polar research institutions, who contributed both vision and content to this clear and helpful document.

As the various components of the Antarctic Treaty meeting proceeded over the subsequent two weeks, IPY received favorable attention several times. The Treaty meeting adopted an additional IPY resolution which provided an Antarctic emphasis to many of the points of the Ministerial Declaration. We will post that document as well once we have it in final form.

In general, IPY received very positive attention throughout the ATCM meetings. IPY participants should feel pleased that their work receives attention at very high political levels. The IPO thanks many partners, and particularly the SCAR Secretariat, who helped make these resolutions and approvals happen.

For more information, please visit the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat web site and the host country web site.