Protecting the High North

Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre talks about oil, fish, borders and geopolitics in the Arctic.

Should the EU be involved in the Arctic? Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway’s foreign minister, thinks so, but at same time he thinks that the management of the High North is best served by the Arctic countries themselves and by existing international treaties.

According to Gahr Støre, the EU has staked out the right course in its approach to the Arctic in its strategy papers, but he emphasises that the most important work in the north will still be done on a regional level, at which the EU is represented by three of its member states: Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Management co-operation, he says, will continue to be the remit for the Arctic Council, where the EU is welcome to participate as an observer.

“The EU will never be a member of the Arctic Council,” Gahr Støre says. “That is an organisation that belongs to the countries of the Arctic…[but] of course, we want to have the EU as an observer in the council. At the same time it must show a willingness and document that it can participate.”

Environmental concerns

Gahr Støre says he shares the EU’s environmental concern for the Arctic but argues that Norway has come a long way in developing responsible and sustainable standards for exploration in the region, particularly for the oil and gas industries. He also plays down fears about irresponsible offshore drilling. “Some people seem to believe that Arctic nations aim to drill on the North Pole, which is a bit far-fetched. It should be remembered, and this is important, that that majority of activities are and will be on land,” he says.

He nevertheless welcomes recent proposals by the European Commission for stricter rules on offshore drilling. “We support the intentions behind stricter rules for deep-sea offshore drilling, but these laws apply to the EU and not to Norway. We believe that we have [the right] rules in place.”

Norway has already extracted gas outside Hammerfest in the north of the country and is planning more operations in the coming years, which has added to criticism of the country for, one the one hand, being a ‘carbon pusher’, while on the other being a champion of carbon reductions. It is criticism that Gahr Støre shrugs off. “Norway is first and foremost a producer of gas,” he says, pointing out that gas is much less polluting than coal, and that by supplying Europe with gas, the country actually helps bring down carbon emissions.
 

Seal products

The Norwegian foreign minister is also critical of the EU’s decision to implement a ban on the trade in seal products, arguing that “it lacks any scientific foundation whatsoever”. “A general ban on seal hunting could actually be counterproductive to achieving sustainable development [in the High North]”, he says. Gahr Støre says that Norway is likely to do the same as Canada and take the EU’s seal ban to the World Trade Organization.

But while the dispute over seal hunting is set to linger on for the foreseeable future, Norway and the EU have improved their relations on another contentious issue: fisheries. Gahr Støre believes that this year’s quota talks, which are scheduled to start in early December, will be “unproblematic”. “The problem concerning [migrating] mackerel was resolved and we are now taking the same line as the EU in opposing the unilateral decision by Iceland to increase its quotas,” he says. “We are seeing an increase in our cod stocks, so we don’t think we are the ones that should be lectured about fisheries management.”

Russia agreement

For Gahr Støre (and other Nordic ministers), the Arctic is important for more than just its natural resources: it is one of the world’s geo-political hot spots. Since the end of the Cold War, when Norway and Turkey were the only NATO countries sharing a land border with the Soviet Union, relations with Moscow have improved gradually and steadily. Earlier this year the two countries reached an agreement on a decade-long border dispute in the Barents Sea, which means that both sides can explore for resources without offending the other. In early November, they also signed an agreement that allows visa-free travel for up to 15 days for citizens of the two countries living within 30 kilometres of either side of the border. This means that around 45,000 Russians can now enter the Schengen zone without a visa.

Norway’s foreign minister believes that this is only the beginning of improved relations with Russia, not only for Norway, but for the rest of Europe too, and he gives Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, much of the credit for this. “I believe that Russia is opening up because Medvedev has realised that the country needs the West to develop,” he says, adding that the West, too, is reliant on a co-operative Russia.

Gahr Støre says that last weekend’s NATO summit in Lisbon was a highlight in new relations between NATO and its old enemy. In Bucharest in 2008 after the Russia-Georgia war and the Ukraine gas-crisis, he says, the thought of a Russian president appearing at a NATO summit was “non-existent”. “That he was there this year shows the willingness of both sides to increase co-operation.”

As for the EU, Gahr Støre says that he enjoys working with Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief. He says that once the European External Action Service is up and running at full speed it will enhance Europe’s role in the world. But Gahr Støre does not believe that a creation of a European diplomatic service will diminish Norway’s standing in global politics. Norway, and the Arctic region, is too important for that, he says.

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