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Russia, the Nordic countries and the European Community have signed
an agreement paving the way for greater development of the far north around
the Barents Sea. While the agreement is intended to give Western European
countries better access to Russia’s minerals and forests, it also aims to
tackle the increasingly worrying pollution from Russia’s Kola Peninsula.

The agreement was signed in Kirkenes in northern Norway, by Sweden,
Finland, Norway, Denmark (representing Greenland), Iceland, Russia and the
European Commission. The Commission wants to limit pollution and increase
prosperity in the Arctic, a depressed area that will qualify for economic
aid if the Nordic countries join the European Community.

The Community is also interested in Russian resources. Last week Norway’s
Saga Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell signed a contract to develop oil and
gas reserves near Archangel.

Jan Romere, of the Swedish delegation, says that ‘for the Nordics, it
was urgent that something be done about the environmental problems’ in the
region, not least because they ‘stand in the way of closer cooperation and
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Norway and Sweden are worried about the threat posed by radioactive
leaks from sunken nuclear-powered submarines and nuclear waste off the Kola
Peninsula, as well as the safety of the nuclear plants there. The Kirkenes
meeting has set up a nuclear safety working group. Anders Karlqvist of the
Swedish Academy of Sciences says the nuclear waste, especially waste from
nuclear tests on the island of Novaya Zemlya, ‘could be really scary – we
don’t know, and that’s the scariest part’.

The other main motivation for closer regional cooperation, says Romere,
is the great economic potential of the region. The Kola Peninsula’s mineral
resources are largely undeveloped, says Romere. There are also large forestry
resources in the Archangel area. The Russians need Western cash to clean
up their existing operations, and require Western commercial know-how to
decide which new projects would be profitable. Both could be provided under
the agreement, says Romere.

The Kirkenes agreement also calls for cooperation to improve transport
and communications in the region. There is no direct rail link between northern
Sweden and the Kola Peninsula. ‘If we want to import minerals or forestry
products from them, and export industrial parts, we need transport,’ says
Romere.

One especially promising route could be the northeast passage, a shipping
lane along the north coast of Russia from the Barents to the Bering Seas,
now regularly plied by Russian ships and icebreakers. Access to the northeast
passage could halve the journey time from Europe to eastern Asia. The meeting
set up a working group to study the commercial feasibility of the route.

The agreement may also permit the exploitation of the large gas and
oil reserves said to lie beneath the Barents Sea. So far, oilfields in Arctic
waters have been developed only off Canada and Alaska. The Russian government
recently set up a company, called Ros Shelf, which wants to drill in the
Barents Sea and sell the oil to Norway.