Obama and Stoltenberg discussed the High North
The High North was one of the issues up for discussion when Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg med with U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House on Thursday.
The two leaders discussed possibilities for cooperation in the Arctic Ocean, especially on fields like emergency preparedness and search and rescue operations. - The U.S. looks at the development in the High North with great interest, and wants to develop our cooperation, also within the oil and gas sector, Stoltenberg said after the meeting, according to NTB.
Obama also was keen to learn more about how Norway came to the agreement with Russia last year on delimitation of the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean, which finally divided up territorial waters in the after decades of negotiation.
Among other issues the two leaders discussed were the financial crisis in Europe, the situation in Libya and Norway’s acquisition of 56 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter planes from the U.S.
Before the meeting with President Obama, Stoltenberg had a meeting with Senator John Kerry, who serves as chairman of the US Foreign Relations Committee. Arctic issues were on the agenda also on that meeting, with Kerry informing Stoltenberg that the U.S. has no yet ratified the Law of the Sea Convention, Aftenposten reports. Kerry is a strong supporter of the treaty and is working to bring the treaty for a vote in the Senate.
The Law of the Sea Convention was negotiated in 1982, and after its ratification by the requisite number of countries, went into effect in 1994. The U.S. signed the Convention but never ratified it, an action that requires a 2/3 vote of the U.S. Senate.
