BarentsObserver met with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in Kirkenes Wednesday evening after the official signing ceremony in Murmansk some hours earlier in Murmansk. It was a very satisfied Prime Minister that looked at the fjord towards the Barents Sea where the now clarified borderline is.
In Kirkenes, the Prime Minister and four other of the Norwegian Ministers that followed to Murmansk met with regional Norwegian players that are active in the development of the cooperation with Russia.
- The people-to-people cooperation between Norway and Russia is the most important in the relations between our two countries, Stoltenberg said.
Norway and Russia have developed a broad cooperation in the north consisting of organizations, cultural workers, businesses, educational- and research institutions etc. over the last 20 years. In the meeting in Kirkenes Wednesday evening Stoltenberg highlighted the importance of every-day contact over the borders.
Jens Stoltenberg is the son of Thorvald Stoltenberg, the Norwegian Foreign Minister that initiated the Barents Cooperation back in 1993.
- The treaty will strengthen our neighbouring relations with Russia and will enhance predictability and stability in the area, Stoltenberg says.
The potential for oil- and gas in the (until now) disputed area is maybe the most interesting task to examine in the years to come.
Following the signing ceremony in Murmansk, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and President Dmitri Medvedev discussed possible ways of energy cooperation in the Barents Sea.
At the joint press-conferance in Murmansk President Medvedev said:
- I hope the border agreement will strengthen the potential of our cooperation in the energy sphere. Primarily it is of course energy, because unregulated questions of territorial demarcation and the delineation of the maritime areas have not allowed us to start large energy projects.
