Spitsbergen Archipelago: 100 years of the treaty, no longer terra nullius

From October 29 to 30, Arkhangelsk hosted the International Scientific Conference Spitsbergen Archipelago: from terra nullius to the interaction territory. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Spitsbergen Treaty in an online format. The forum was attended by more than 40 Russian and international scientists from Norway, Sweden, Belgium, and Italy. All specialising in areas spanning the history of the study of the Arctic, Spitsbergen, Russian–Norwegian relations, historical geography, and museology. The conference was divided into a plenary session and five thematic sections: Plenary: Spitsbergen Archipelago – the problem of sovereignty”; 1. Scientific expeditions in the Spitsbergen Archipelago; 2. Prospects for circumpolar cooperation; 3. Economic development of the archipelago in the XVIII – early XX centuries; 4. Economy of the archipelago in the XX century and Spitsbergen in the Second World War; and 5. Cultural heritage and social problems of modern Svalbard. Opening the plenary session, A. A. Komarov, Head of the Center for the History of Northern Europe and the Baltic States of the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted that the Spitsbergen Treaty laid the foundation for the international status of the Spitsbergen Archipelago. However, 100 years later, the foreign policy situation around the archipelago continues to be very difficult. A serious destabilising factor is the general geopolitical situation in the Arctic, with countries focusing on competition instead of cooperation. Professor A. N. Vylegzhanin then drew attention to the objective nature of the interests of Norway and Russia in their rapprochement positions in the Arctic. In his opinion, the international treaty on Maritime Delimitation and Cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean of 15 September 2010, allows the two countries to more actively coordinate efforts in defending their mutual interests in preserving the ecological nature of the marine environment and the reasonable extraction of transboundary reserves. Here, Oslo has more disagreements with Iceland, Great Britain, Spain, Latvia and, in general, with the European Union than with the Russian Federation. Therefore, Russian–Norwegian cooperation in this direction is strong basis for continued rapprochement of Norway and Russia, and gives additional stability to broader international relations in the Arctic.