Our Arctic Neighbors: Arctic is Norway’s foreign policy priority

The Arctic remains the most important strategic foreign policy area for Norway’s center-left coalition government, which first took power in 2005 and was narrowly re-elected in September 2009, a government official said March 22. State Secretary Erik Lahnstein was speaking at the Arctic Dialogue conference in Bodo, Norway.

Norway has three main aims in the Arctic, Lahnstein said: enhancing knowledge in and about the north; increasing the country’s activity and presence in the area; and laying the foundations for sustainable economic and social development in the years to come.

“Knowledge is at the core of our High North efforts,” he said. “Knowledge is one of the most important building blocks in sustainable social and business development. It is essential that knowledge institutions in the region are competitive, both nationally and internationally. It is important to develop the knowledge infrastructure in the High North.”

Climate change, new shipping routes and petroleum resources are the driving forces behind the world’s increased interest in the Arctic region, Lahnstein told the conference.

“The Arctic is not where the consequences of climate change will be most severely felt, but it is where they are first seen,” he said. “The region is therefore very important for climate change research. We encourage international cooperation in this field.”

More than a dozen nations are engaged in climate change activities in Svalbard, and Norway is also developing an international center for climate and environmental research in Tromso, Lahnstein said.

“The melting of the ice is a severe challenge, but also creates new opportunities for commercial activities like shipping, extraction of oil and gas, fisheries and tourism,” he said. “These activities create new technical, environmental and political challenges that will have to be dealt with. It is important that we develop appropriate regulations and guide the development.”

Lahnstein said that Norway is working actively through the International Maritime Organization to update the Polar Code and make the code mandatory for ships operating in the Arctic.

—Sarah Hurst