Foreign Ministers to meet twice in Barents
Stubb, Støre, Lavrov and Bildt will meet in the two Barents cities of Tromsø and Murmansk this year. Defence- and rescue cooperation and environmental challenges will be two hot topics.
The Foreign Ministers of the Barents member countries have two special designed meetings to discuss hot topics in the Barents Region and the Arctic during 2009. And Alexander Stubb, Jonas Gahr Støre, Sergey Lavrov and Carl Bildt do not lack interesting political issues to put on the agenda when they meet.
When the Nordic ministers of Foreign Affairs met in Oslo on Monday this week, a study about possible future defence cooperation was presented, BarentsObserver.com reported yesterday. Common coast guard and Arctic surveillance were some of the items listed in the Nordic defence study written by the initiator of the Barents cooperation, former Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Thorvald Stoltenberg.
So far, no official Russian comment to possible Nordic defence cooperation is given. But, the Kremlin supported English-language news channel Russia Today wrote:
….”the Nordic Alliance could possibly mean that it [Russia] will be able to speak directly to the Arctic countries, thus by-passing NATO, for 60 years now wholly controlled by the US, which in turn could mean that purely economic interests would prevail. However, this is only if the US does not enter the new organisation, because, strangely enough, it has Arctic territories too”……
The Ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council will be in Tromsø, Norway on the 28th and 29th of April. Norway has been the chair state of the Arctic Council since it took over from Russia in 2006. During the Norwegian chairmanship a secretariat for the Arctic Council is established in Tromsø.
Although Arctic Council never discusses defence related questions the up-coming meeting might be an exception. The proposal from Thorvald Stoltenberg about extensive Nordic military cooperation touch upon issues very hot for the other Arctic Countries also. Climate Changes and common rescue operations in the north might interest Russia as much as the Nordic countries.
With the common Barents Rescue cooperation, the Nordic countries do already have a fruitful cooperation with Russian in the north. Barents Rescue 2009 will be arranged in the Murmansk area later this year. Murmansk is where Stubb, Støre, Lavrov and Bildt will meet again later this year.
The Barents Council meeting in Murmansk is on the 14th and 15th of October. Russia is the chair country of the Barents Council until Sergey Lavrov will hand over the chairmanship to Sweden’s Carl Bildt in Murmansk.
A secretariat for the Arctic Council was established in Tromsø during the Norwegian chairmanship. Also, an international Barents secretariat was established in the border town of Kirkenes during Russia’s chairmanship of the Barents Council.
