International law challenged by ice melting
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre stresses that the rapidly proceeding ice melting in the Arctic will not have consequences for international law in the area. It is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which regulates all such legal questions, he underlines, thus rebuffing calls for a new international agenda for the region.
The implications from climate change were on top of the agenda in last week’s EU meeting in Brussels. In a document distributed before the meeting, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner express fear for international security following the climate changes and subsequent crisis and conflict.
The document, available at Europa.eu, reads that “more disputes over land and maritime border and other territorial rights are likely” and that “the increased accessibility of the enormous hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic region is changing the geo-strategic dynamics of the region with potential consequences for international stability and European security interests”.
The Norwegian foreign minister says to newspaper Aftenposten that it is “new and significant that the EU makes such a document”. At the same time he stresses that he is critical towards the EU’s apparent interest in a review of international law in the area following ice melting.
-There is no legal loopholes in this. We have the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which regulates these issues, he says to Aftenposten.
Despite his certain level of scepticism towards the EU document, the new EU interest towards the High North must still sound like good music for Mr. Støre, who long has struggled to raise the EU’s interest in Arctic issues. As a non-member of the Union, Norway is forced to play its cards carefully in the Arctic balancing between the great powers of Russia, the USA and the EU.
The EU’s interests in the Barents Sea and the High North will get no less in the years to come, and Norway might benefit from its continued proactive position towards the Union.
