Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic.
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Vladimir Putin and Yuri Trutnev in 2018.
Photo: Kommersant Photo Agency / TT NEWS AGENCY
Russia has had mining operations on the archipelago since the 1930s.
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Norwegian Svalbard.
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It was during a commission meeting in Moscow that Yuri Trutnev, deputy Russian prime minister and responsible for the country’s policy in the Arctic, raised Russian rights on Norwegian Svalbard.
According to Trutnev, the country’s rights are “put under pressure” on the archipelago. It reports Norwegian The daily newspaper and The Barents Observer.
He also draws parallels about the situation on Svalbard with the war in Ukraine.
– Today our soldiers sacrifice blood for our nation’s sovereignty, and for the people’s right to speak Russian. I believe that our work in the government in this area (about Svalbard, ed. note), should be treated in the same way – as a fight for our sovereignty. A fight for Russia and our rights, Yuri Trutnev says in the statement.
The Russian Deputy Prime Minister also rules out possible international cooperation on Svalbard.
– I think everyone realizes that it is also not an opportunity for international cooperation, he says.
Not the first Russian threat
According to the Barents Observer, the statement comes just days after Yuri Trutnev met soldiers from a Russian drone unit that fought in Ukraine. At the meeting, Trutnev said that it will be possible to use their combat experience in the Arctic.
It is not the first time that Russia has expressed dissatisfaction with the situation on Svalbard.
On February 4, 2020, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov requested a meeting with Norway about the island group.
“We do not intend to limit our presence there. On the contrary,” Lavrov wrote in a letter to Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide at the time.
The Spitsbergen Treaty from 1920 means that Svalbard’s lands and territorial waters belong to Norway, but all signatory countries – which includes Russia – have the same right to use natural resources on the island.
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