The State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs “will study the issue [da denúncia do acordo marítimo] Then inform the deputies ”, announced Vyacheslav Volodin, according to the association’s website.
Russia and Norway, two countries with decisive weight in the Arctic region where natural resources provoke many rivalries, concluded an agreement in 2010 on the demarcation of their maritime borders in the Barents Sea, which ended a 40-year dispute.
This agreement, ratified in 2011, was hailed as an occasion for a new beginning in the relationship between the two countries, but relations between them subsequently deteriorated, particularly after Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine.
In this context, Russia accused Oslo of preventing it, at the end of June, from crossing a cargo ship that was destined to supply Russian miners in the Arctic Norwegian Svalbard archipelago, and threatened to retaliate.
Norway considered that it was not in violation of any agreement and indicated that Moscow could provide the Russian community living in Svalbard with other means.
About a thousand kilometers from the North Pole, Svalbard is twice the size of Belgium, and is sometimes seen as NATO’s Arctic Achilles heel.
A treaty concluded in 1920 in Paris recognizes Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard, but also guarantees the citizens of the signatory countries, day 46 including Russia, the freedom to exploit their natural resources “in a state of complete equality”.
In this sense, Russia, and the former Soviet Union, has been mining coal for decades in these lands inhabited by less than 3,000 people of about 50 nationalities.
William Shakespeare is a journalist and feature writer specialising in culture, entertainment, history, and current affairs. With a keen eye for storytelling and analysis, he produces informative articles that help readers understand the people, ideas, and events influencing modern life.
