Jonas Gahr Støre (No. 2 from the left) says the arrest of the Russian trawler is not directly a political case. Here together with Sergey Lavrov (right) and the Foreign Ministers from Finland Erkki Tuomioja and Sweden’s Carl Bildt. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
The Russian trawler “Sapphire II” was arrested for illegally dumping fish in the waters around Svalbard on September 28 and towed by the Norwegian coast guard to Tromsø where the captain and the owning company were given a fine of €57.000.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted promptly and sent a note of protest to Norway’s Ambassador to Moscow. Russia does not acknowledge Norwegian jurisdiction in the waters around Svalbard and believes that Russian vessels are not obliged to follow Norwegian law in the area unless the rules have been approved by the joint Norwegian, Russian fishery commission.
The commission meets in Kaliningrad this week, and Russia invited the Norwegian coast guard to participate. The Norwegian coast guard normally doesn’t participate at these annual meetings and didn’t show up this year either.
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That irritates the Russian Foreign Minister who this week met with Norway’s Foreign Minister at the Barents Council meeting in Kiruna in northern Sweden.
- Norwegian coast guard was supposed to be present but somehow they excused themselves and did not participate at that meeting so the meeting was taking place without them, Lavrov told reporters in Kiruna on Tuesday.
- Unfortunate, the current session of the Norwegian Russian fishery commission is not attended by the Norwegian coast guard. I hope this is just an accidental situation and that next time they would be part of the discussions aimed at arriving at mutual acceptable solutions, Lavrov said at a press conference minutes before he went to dinner with Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre the evening before the Barents Council meeting started.
- It is not the Russians that put together the Norwegian delegation to those meetings, Støre told Norwegian TV2 after Lavrov’s press-conference, but before the dinner where the two ministers shared table.
On Wednesday, the two Foreign Ministers had more harmonized statements when they met reporters.
- First of all I will not call it a conflict. I will call it the situation which needs to be clarified and it needs to be clarified, and must be clarified, on the legal basis including first of all the 1920 treaty on Spitsbergen and including the Russian, Norwegian agreements and treaties related to this particular situation, Lavrov said at the press-conference following the Barents Council meeting 550 meter underground at the iron-ore mine in Kiruna.
- There is a mechanism to resolve all the questions which arise from time to time and this is the joint bilateral fishery commission. We discuss this situation with minister Støre and we agreed to asks our representatives, the experts attending the joint fishery commission to look into the specific situation and to agree on the technical procedures which will makes sure that all violators are prevented from continuing to violate the rules in this territory for fishing and also ensuring that the measures taken are adequate and proportion. I am sure that this is the way to handle this situation, Lavrov said.
Støre fully agreed with Lavrov.
- I can second every word that the Russian foreign minister said. And I think as ministers it is our role to give political inputs to this cooperation which has been extremely successful. Norway and Russia, together at different levels, have been able to manage its common fishery resources in these waters in a way that have made it possible to increase quotas to the benefits of the fishing industry, Støre said. He continued:
- And we would like to do everything we can to have transparency around the way we control and monitor that rules are being respected. And we will apply and even have the approach to fishing vessels from all countries including my own, including from Norway, if there is suspicion of violation of rules, Støre said in the meeting with reporters.
- And then we have an excellent fishery commission who are able to raise all issues if there is a need for clarification. And that is going on just as we speak as the commission meets in Kaliningrad. Norwegian representatives there are competent to comment on every issue which is relating to this and we as foreign ministers will do what we can to make our contribution to that good cooperation, Støre ended.
