News of Norway, issue 5, 1997
Noting the success of the Barents Regional Initiative, Godal pointed out that regional cooperation arrangements bring together politicians and decision makers at the national, regional and local levels as well as fostering low-level contacts between local populations. Acknowledging an expanded definition of security in the post-Cold War era, Godal remarked that a new understanding has emerged which recognizes that cooperation in military, cultural, economic and environmental areas are key ingredients in the development of a new European security architecture.
Geographically, the Barents region spans the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland and Northwestern Russia, including the counties of Murmansk and Archangel as well as the Republic of Karelia. The brainchild of former Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorvald Stoltenberg, the Barents Regional Initiative began in 1992 and reflected Norwegian concerns about the sizable Russian military presence on the Kola Peninsula as well as the heavy industrial pollution in the region.
The decision-making structure of the Barents region was established on two levels, their inter-regional and inter-governmental. The Barents Regional Council is an important forum for local politicians and decision makers to establish networks and to set priorities for the region. Members of the Barents Council include the Nordic countries, Russia and the European Commission. Cooperation had two main strategic goals. The first was to establish normal neighborly relations across the former East-West divide in the north and the second was to insure economic and social development in the Barents Region itself.
Cooperation centered on the environment, trade and economic development, science and educational research, as well as establishing greater cultural ties between the indigenous peoples of the region.
Norwegian historians have recently pointed to trade and cultural links that characterized the coast of Arctic Europe for nearly a thousand years. Great emphasis has been placed on the trade which flourished between the Norwegians and Russians along the coast of the Kola Peninsula in the 18th and 19th centuries. Known as the Pomor trade route, exchanges were made between Russian merchants trading flour in exchange for Norwegian fish. In the northern Norwegian town of Hammerfest, Russian coins were an accepted form of currency along with the krone.
Foreign Minister Godal acknowledges that challenges remain. However, the initial phase of dismantling old divides and reestablishing contacts as well as a viable framework in which to achieve greater cooperation has been put in place. Various nuclear safety programs are being supported by the European Union and the United States and several international institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as the UN Development Programme. Swedish assumption of the Barents Council presidency provides the possibility of increased engagement by the European Union in the region as well as a commitment to secure international financing for improved infrastructure development in the region. Clearly, the Barents Cooperation, like the other trans-border regional structures which have surfaced in various parts of Europe, contributes to a more stable and peaceful Europe.
Nanette J. Ryen is a 1997 graduate of the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.