Støre, Lavrov to Tromsø in October
Russia’s and Norway’s foreign ministers Sergey Lavrov and Jonas Gahr Støre will meet in Norway to be conferred as Honorary Doctors of the University of Tromsø.
The world’s northernmost university is preparing to receive high-ranking visitors next month, as both ministers have confirmed their presence at the conferring ceremony on October 12.
The two frontmen for the Agreement on Delimitation of the Barents Sea were appointed Honorary Doctors earlier this summer. - Lavrov and Støre are a symbol of peaceful cooperation and I am very glad the university board has decided to make them Honorary Doctors, Rector of University of Tromsø Jarle Aarbakke said when the appointment was announced.
As reasons for appointing Støre and Lavrov as Doctor Honoris Causa, the board names the important work they have done on the delimitation agreement and the goal-oriented and deliberate efforts they have laid down in placing the High North on the international map, the university’s web site reads.
Before the ceremony the Centre for Peace Studies at the University of Tromsø will hold a symposium called “Negotiating borders in the North. Neighbourly Asymmetry: Norway and Russia 1814-2014”.
Sergey Lavrov is the second Russian to be appointed Honorary Doctor at UiT. The first was Former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, in 1998. Other famous honorary doctors at UiT are Dalai Lama, Salman Rushdie, Rigoberta Menchu Tum and Desmond Mpiko Tutu, according to the university’s web site.
