News of Norway, issue 6, 1998
It is important to note that the two bodies are created equal, which adds an innovative parallel structure to the cooperation. Currently, Norway has the chairmanship of the Council of Ministers.
The Barents region has an abundance of natural resources, which was the basis of its foundation. The availability of fish, animals and forests, and later minerals and energy, was what first attracted settlers to the area. These resources are still the basis for the region's activities. Further development of the energy resources in Russia is vital for the country's ongoing transition to market economy.
When initiating the Barents Cooperation, the Norwegian government had three main goals: to normalize the cooperation between Russia and the Nordic countries; to stabilize the region by removing environmental threats, decreasing military tensions and differences in living standards; and to regionalize the cooperation by pulling countries outside the region into a multilateral cooperation, making the Barents Region part of a bigger framework that crossed old east-west borders in Europe.
The Barents umbrella covers several areas of cooperation, such as economy, trade, science and technology, tourism, the environment, infrastructure, educational and cultural exchange, local living conditions, democracy and improvement of the situation of the indigenous people in the north. Projects and exchanges are taking place in all areas, but where the cooperation has achieved the most success is in the area of cultural and educational exchange.
Barentsplus Junior is a bilateral student exchange program between Norway and Russia for high school students. A project between colleges in Narvik and initially Arkhangelsk, but now also Murmansk and Karelen, aims to exchange technological knowledge between the regional institutions. Barentsplus is a program aimed at students and professors of higher education and research that has been very successful.
From the beginning, the cooperation was meant to be a people-to-people cooperation. The five years that have passed have only emphasized the value of and the need for grass root projects because of their ability to replace suspicion with trust. After some 70 years of closed borders and high levels of suspicion, the rebuilding of trust is the first stepping stone.
See also related articles: "Framework agreement opens doors in environmental cooperation," "State Secretary Åslaug Marie Haga: Norway and the Barents Cooperation," and "Karen Fredrickson: An American perspective."