Norwegian MPs to consider ratification of Artic border delimitation

OSLO (Itar-Tass) - Norway's Storting, the national
parliament, is expected to consider ratification of a Norwegian-Russian treaty on the delimitation of sea spaces in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
The discussion of the issue will be followed by plenary voting, with Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere attending.
The Storting's foreign policy and defense committee has already
adopted the text of the document unanimously.
A resolution passed by the committee says the treaty completes the
delimitation of Arctic sea spaces between the two countries and lifts all the unresolved problems in this sphere.
The document, according to the Norwegian MPs, keeps up the practice of cooperation between the sides in fisheries and does not introduce any changes in the rights to fish catch.
In addition, it sets up the procedures for shared and responsible
utilization of hydrocarbon deposits in case they cross the delimitation line, the parliamentary decision says.
It describes the treaty as a document resolving a big and complicated territorial issue and laying the foundation for closer cooperation with Russia, the MPs said.
According to the committee's data, the 1,680 kilometers-long
delimitation line will divide the litigious sector having the area of
175,200 square kilometers. Each side will get ownership of a space of
about 87,600 square kilometers.
The treaty was signed by Russian and Norwegian Foreign Ministers in
Murmansk September 15, 2010, marking a completion of the talks on the
delimitation problem that lasted 40 years.
It set the first ever instance of a peaceful resolution of an Arctic territorial dispute.