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SVALBARD

Norway says ‘solution’ found in Svalbard cargo dispute with Moscow

Norway's foreign ministry said Wednesday that it had found a "solution" to allow Russian cargo, which was blocked due to sanctions, to reach the Arctic archipelago Svalbard, easing a dispute with Moscow.

Published: 6 July 2022 16:15 CEST
Pictured is Svalbard.
Norway has said that it has found a solution to the cargo problem. File photo: People walk through a street during heavy snowfall in Longyearbyen, Photo by Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP

The ministry said cargo containers had been blocked since they were transported on Russian vehicles, which were banned from bringing cargo over the border, but now containers would instead be brought using Norwegian vehicles.

“It is positive that this matter has now found a solution,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that two containers with supplies were on their way from mainland Norway to Svalbard on a Norwegian ship.

“It’s important to underline that these solutions have existed all along,” Ane Haavardsdatter Lunde, communications director for Norway’s foreign ministry, told AFP.

The ministry said in its statement that Norway had a “good dialogue” with the Russian side throughout the dispute.

Last week Russia’s foreign ministry summoned Norway’s charge d’affaires, accusing Oslo of blocking access to the Svalbard archipelago and threatening retaliation.

On Tuesday, Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of parliament’s lower house, the State Duma, told lawmakers to consider denouncing a landmark Arctic border treaty with Norway.

In 2010, Russia and Norway signed a treaty on maritime delimitation and cooperation in the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean, putting to rest a 40-year-old row.

Norway responded by stressing that Oslo and Russia had a “mutual interest” in maintaining the agreement and that the deal did not have a “termination clause”.

Norway has sovereignty over Svalbard but allows citizens of more than 40 countries to exploit the islands’ potentially vast resources on an equal footing.

Moscow has long wanted a bigger say in the archipelago and insists on calling it Spitsbergen rather than the Norwegian Svalbard.

After President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February, the West has hit Russia with several rounds of unprecedented sanctions. Last week Norway announced nearly a billion euros of aid to Ukraine.

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SVALBARD

Norway calls off sale of last private land in Arctic Svalbard

The Norwegian government called offa plan to sell the last privately owned piece of land on the strategic Arctic archipelago of Svalbard on Monday in order to prevent its acquisition by China.

Published: 1 July 2024 12:35 CEST
Norway calls off sale of last private land in Arctic Svalbard

The remote Sore Fagerfjord property in southwestern Svalbard — 60 square kilometres (23 square miles) of mountains, plains and a glacier — was on sale for 300 million euros ($326 million).

The archipelago is located halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, in an Arctic region that has become a geopolitical and economic hotspot as the ice melts and relations grow ever frostier between Russia and the West.

Svalbard is governed under an unusual legal framework that allows foreign entities to gain footholds in the region.

A treaty signed in 1920 recognises Norwegian sovereignty over the territory but it also gives citizens of the signatory powers — which include Russia and China — the same rights to exploit its mineral resources.

Russia, for example, has maintained a coal mining community on Svalbard, via the state-run company Trust Arktikugol, for decades.

Yet Norway, keen to protect its sovereignty, would not look kindly on the property falling into foreign hands, and the government said Monday a potential sale will require state approval under national security law.

“The current owners of Sore Fagerfjord… are open to selling to actors that could challenge Norwegian legislation in Svalbard,” Trade and Industry Minister Cecilie Myrseth said.

“It could disturb stability in the region and potentially threaten Norwegian interests,” she added.

Lawyer Per Kyllingstad, who represents the sellers, has previously told AFP that he had received “concrete signs of interest” from potential Chinese buyers who have “been showing a real interest in the Arctic and Svalbard for a long time.”

The piece of land is a unique occasion to grab the “last private land in Svalbard, and, to our knowledge, the last private land in the world’s High Arctic,” he said.

Kyllingstad did not immediately respond to the government announcement.

The property’s seller is a company controlled by a Russian-born Norwegian, according to local media.

Critics are sceptical about the price and feasibility of the sale. The property, in the southwest of the archipelago where no infrastructure exists, covers protected areas where construction and motorised transport are prohibited, stripping it of commercial value.

In 2016, the government paid 33.5 million euros to acquire the second-last piece of private land on Svalbard, near Longyearbyen, which was also reportedly being eyed by Chinese investors.

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