The Russian-Norwegian agreement on maritime delimitation and cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean offers great opportunities for the development of business relations between the two countries in a wide range of industries, primarily in oil and gas, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store told Itar-Tass in an interview. On June 7 in Oslo he will exchange ratification instruments with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and a month after that the treaty will formally enter into force. "The upcoming event is very pleasant for our countries, because as a result of years-long negotiations the most complicated issue in bilateral relations has been resolved," said the Norwegian minister. He said the natural wealth of the region should unite neighbors, and not alienate them.
"The existence of clear boundaries is the only politically correct approach. And it can expand current cooperation between the two countries," said Store. "For example, we have already worked out a mutually beneficial partnership arrangement in the fishing sector, and both countries are now expecting more," he said.
The minister believes that "the countries have left behind old prejudices."
"The situation has changed, and in the Arctic we see that we have so many common interests," he said.
"After the solution of the delimitation problem we have no other burning foreign policy issues," Store stated. Further work, he said, should be focused on such tasks as simplifying of the process of crossing the state border and reducing bureaucratic obstacles to cooperation. Two issues that remain relevant for Norway, he said, are environmental pollution in the north and the difficulties in obtaining Russian visas for representatives of Norwegian NGOs.
Bilateral talks on the division of the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean lasted about 40 years. In accordance with the treaty signed by the ministers in Murmansk on September 15, 2010, the new boundary line will divide the disputed area of 175.2 thousand square kilometers roughly in halves. The agreement has been ratified by the parliaments of both countries.