Norway and Russia are pushing ahead in talks to end decades of dispute over their maritime border in the Barents Sea, a part of the Arctic rich with oil and gas, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said today. But, in an interview with Reuters, Gahr Store played down prospects of a deal during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Oslo next week. Medvedev will also visit Denmark, an Arctic power through its Greenland territories, as global warming makes the icy region more accessible and triggers new territorial claims. "Since 2005, we have been in a constructive dialogue on this (Barents Sea border) issue," Gahr Store said, highlighting a 2007 deal over delineation of a fjord inlet at the southern tip of the disputed zone, which is half the size of Germany. "Our negotiators have been narrowing gaps. Each day, we get one day closer...(but) this is a long story," he said when asked if a breakthrough was imminent.
Gahr Store rejected views that Norway, whose oil and gas resources are much smaller than those of Russia, would be increasingly pressured over time to settle for any border pact that would unlock at least part of the Arctic resources. "Norway will never negotiate this type of deal out of time pressure. We have always been of the view that the delimitation line will unleash a potential for co-operation," he said. He said proposals from Russia for joint exploration in the disputed area before a deal had been reached were "politely rejected" by Oslo, which wants "the predictability of a border".
The disputed zone is sandwiched between the Shtokman gas discovery on the Russian side and two promising oil and gas fields on the Norwegian side. Norwegian giant Statoil is helping develop the giant Shtokman project. "There is no one single project that will determine whether we succeed in the far north," Gahr Store said. "But if Shtokman gets off the ground, it will stimulate a lot of activity." Russia, Norway, Denmark, Canada and the United States have Arctic borders and are working to stake out territorial claims over what geologists say could be a massive resource reserve.
In 2007 a Russian submarine planted a flag on the seabed at the North Pole, stoking concern of a new race for claims on undersea shelf limits which give states the right to exploit resources on and beneath the seabed, such as oil, gas and fish. Gahr Store believes that some Arctic states have "over-interpreted" the symbolic flag planting, which he said "did not create law or initiate a process of recognition". The North Pole area in the Arctic Ocean is claimed by both Russia and Denmark, and is likely to be on the agenda during Medvedev's visit to Copenhagen. Norway's own new Arctic claims stop in deep water about 550 kilometres from the Pole.
