SAR is an international agreement on search and rescue cooperation in the Arctic, signed by all 8 Arctic States (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and the U.S) in Nuuk, Greenland, 12 May 2011, but has come into force in January 2013. SAR is the first ever legally binding document elaborated under the auspices of the Arctic Council and the first truly pan-Arctic legally binding document (the only other multilateral Arctic binding document, the 1973 Polar Bear Agreement, was signed by only five of the eight Arctic States – Canada, Denmark, Norway, the USA, and the USSR).