-One thing can be said with big certainty the talks will be complicated, EU Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said about the upcoming EU-Russia negotiations on a new partnership and cooperation agreement. The commissioner this week visits Moscow.
The Tschudi Shipping Company invites Russian metallurgy giant Norilsk Nickel to take use of its terminal and port facilities in Kirkenes on the Norwegian Barents Sea coast.
When Norways Minister of Culture, Trond Giske, and Russias Minister of Culture, Aleksander Avdeev met in Arkhangelsk this week, they both agreed to outline a cultural strategy for the High North.
Negotiations over Russian membership in the World Trade Organisation might be completed by the end of the year. However, first the country will have to agree with Sweden and Finland about export tariffs on round timber.
Oil company ENI intends to engage local fishermen in its bid to strengthen oil spill preparedness in the Barents Sea. With the help of modified vessels, the fishermen might in the future have to help the oil industry collect spilled oil at their fishing grounds.
This week the Russian Ministry of Defence has informed the Norwegian Ministry of Defence that all planned military cooperation between Norway and Russia will be halted. The Norwegian Government hopes that all non-military cooperations will continue as planned.
Oil company Total’s representative in Murmansk yesterday assured speaker in the regional parliament that the company will assist with resolving concrete problems within regional healthcare, education and culture.
The Shtokman and Prirazlomnoe fields in the Barents Sea will be in full production in 25-30 years, Deputy Director of the Russian Arctic and Antarctica Research Institute says.
The Sami community in northern Sweden demands shares of wind power profits as compensation for damages inflicted on their their area by wind power production.
The Oslo Stock Exhange was yesterday down 9,71 percent, while the Stockholm and Finnish exchanges were down respectively 7,1 and 8,4 percent. In Iceland, the national economy is on the verge of bankruptcy following the country’s bank collapse.
The cancellation of the Tromsø 2018 Olympic application has led to a lot of frustration in northern Norway. Now a regional debate on the formation of northern Norway as an independent republic is hitting the headlines.
