Leading officials from the naval town of Severomorsk are these days on an official visit to the town’s Norwegian friendship municipality Sør-Varanger. The two municipalities have been cooperating for more than 20 years.
Tensions have increased between Russian and western countries in the aftermath of the events in the Ukraine and on Crimea. Also in the high north the situation has had an impact, with a planned joint US-Russian-Norwegian naval exercise and a ministerial meeting to discuss environmental issues being cancelled.
The diplomatic and political problems on the world scene have had no impact on the regional people-to-people cooperation in the north, and will hopefully not have any, the mayors of Severomorsk and Sør-Varanger say. «High politics is not an issue for us at our meetings here», says Mayor of Severomorsk Aleksander Abramov. “Our focus is on the wellbeing of the citizens of Severomorsk and Sør-Varanger”. The complications on the world scene will pass, and when they do, we will have a continuing good relationship, the mayor says.
In Kirkenes, the two parties will sign a new two-year agreement on cooperation. The agreement include official meetings, education, culture, youth related projects, sport, cooperation between museums, technical services, social services, information, business and NGO’s.
