Norway on the defensive
The Russians are planning huge port and infrastructure developments in Murmansk and the Finns want to build a new railway line from Finnish Lapland to the coast of the Norwegian Sea. In Norway, however, the official high profile focus on the North has so far failed to bring notable results, newspaper Nordlys writes in an editorial.
When Finnish Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen last week visited northern Norway, he presented plans for a major new infrastructure project between the two neighbouring Nordic countries. Mr. Väyrynen proposed the construction of a railway line from Finnish Kollari to Norwegian Skibotn, a railway line which could mean a major boost for shipping of Finnish, perhaps also Russian, goods for export through the Norwegian North. However, response from the Norwegian side was cool. Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs said to his Finnish colleague that there is not point in building a railway line, which only looks good at the map. The statement from Mr. Støre illustrates current Norwegian High North policies, Nordlys editor in chief Hans Kristian Amundsen writes. No Norwegian politicians dare to take the lead, and draw the map of a new northern Norway equipped with modern road infrastructure, port facilities, satisfactory flight connections, as well as railway lines to our Finnish and Russian friends, he adds. In Norway, fear wins over boldness and the great projects remain the losers. The brave ideas are replaced by economical correctness and political toothlessness, the newspaper editor writes. He believes both the Finns and the Russians are more brave than the Norwegians in the development of infrastructure in the High North
