Norway Urges Russia to Stick to International Law in Arctic

All territorial claims in the Arctic must fall within the strict framework of the international Law of the Sea, Norway said Thursday in reaction to Russian plans to formally set its borders in the oil-rich region.

“Norway and Russia have until now shared very common positions on this, resorting to the Law of the Sea and the existing principles,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told reporters in Oslo.


“I presume that this is also the basis for the reasoning when (Russian President Dmitry Medvedev) says Russia is working on this question,” he added.

His comments came after Medvedev on Wednesday stressed the “strategic importance” of the Arctic region for his country, and said Russia needed to “wrap up all the formalities for drawing the external border in the continental shelf.”

Dow Jones Newswires