Ceremony cancelled
There will be no conferring ceremony for foreign ministers Sergey Lavrov and Jonas Gahr Støre in at the University of Tromsø in October. Lavrov has cancelled his trip to Norway.
Norway’s and Russia’s foreign ministers were to meet in the Arctic town of Tromsø on October 12 to be conferred as Honorary Doctors at the world’s northernmost university.
Today came the news that Lavrov has cancelled his trip. According to information from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Russian foreign minister is prevented from coming to Tromsø because of “duties given to him by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin”.
Some might speculate that the cancellation is a reaction to the incident in the Barents Sea last week, where Norwegian Coast Guard detained the Russian fishing vessel “Sapphire II” allegedly for dumping of fish in the fishery conservation zone near Svalbard.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an official protest to Norway’s ambassador to Moscow Knut Hauge called the actions by Norway “unacceptable and provocative”, underlining that “such practice runs counter to existing political arrangements for preserving favorable conditions for Russian fishing after the entry into force of the Russian-Norwegian Treaty on Maritime Delimitation and Cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean”.
Jonas Gahr Støre and Sergey Lavrov were appointed Honorary Doctors because of their role as frontmen for the maritime agreement.
Head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat Rune Rafaelsen believes that there is no connection between the detainment of the Russian vessel and Lavrov’s cancellation:
- Relations between Norway and Russia are so solid that an episode like this will not have any impact. The level of cooperation between Norway and Russia has never been higher, he adds. At the same time Rafaelsen underlines that it is important that Norway ensures control with the rich fish resources in the fishery conservation zone.
