In 2013 the Barents Euro-Arctic Region is celebrating 20 years since the signing of the Kirkenes declaration. Next week the prime ministers of Russia, Norway, Finland and Iceland, the foreign ministers of Sweden and Denmark, the vice president of the EU Commission and representatives from several observer states meet in Kirkenes to sign the Kirkenes Declaration II.
In an interview with Murmansk-based news website B-port Professor Oleg Andreyev at the Baltic Institute of Ecology, Politics and Law, a long-time contributor to discussions on the Barents cooperation, says that it is due for an update of the existing declaration.
Any document will after some time need to be changed or updated, Andreyev says. “When it comes to the Kirkenes Declaration, I believe that it has not worked itself out, because this document was drafted in general terms, it has a peaceful focus and it was drawn up in the philosophy of peace and friendship”. But on the other hand, 20 years is a large amount of time and a lot has changed in the world since then.
The most important achievement of the Kirkenes Declaration is according to Andreyev that it cleared the way for a completely new form of cooperation.
The Barents declaration that was signed in 1993 established a new type of regional international relations, Andreyev states. “Earlier, during the Cold War and the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, the division of the world was the same – the US and its satellites and the USSR and its satellites. And no regional international relations could be seen”. If there were any relations, then they went through capitals, large cities and certain international organizations like UN and UNESCO, Andreyev explains.
Only when the Iron Curtain fell, conditions for a new type of international relations – regional international cooperation – emerged, Andreyev says. The Barents Euro-Arctic Regional cooperation was the first of such new relations, later followed the Baltic Sea Region, the North Sea Region, the Black Sea Region, the Mediterranean Sea Basin and other forums.
