Bildt and Støre ready for cross-border train ride
The Foreign Ministers of Norway and Sweden will arrive to the Barents Council meeting in Kiruna by the iron-ore train from Narvik.
This will be the second time Carl Bildt and Jonas Gahr Støre arrive to a Barents Council meeting by untraditional cross-border transport. In 2009, the two Ministers drove bus from the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes to Murmansk, crossing Russia’s Kola Peninsula.
See slide-show from Carl Bildt and Jonas Gahr Støre’s bus ride across the Kola Peninsula
The train ride from Narvik to Kiruna is the world’s northernmost cross-border railway line. The railway from Narvik is not connected to any part of the Norwegian railway network, but goes directly cross the mountains towards Kiruna in northern Sweden.
Further development of east-west cross-border infrastructure is highlighted as a priority within the Barents cooperation.
The railway was built for transporting iron-ore from LKAB in Kiruna to the year around ice-free harbour in Narvik.
The Barents Council meeting in Kiruna takes place on October 12. At the meeting, Sweden’s Carl Bildt will hand over the chairmanship of the Barents Council to Norway’s Jonas Gahr Støre for the coming two years period.
Read also: Underground Barents Council meeting
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Finland’s Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, as well as state secretaries from Denmark, Iceland and an EU Commissioner will also take part.
At the same time, the county of Troms in northern Norway will hand over the chairmanship of the Barents Regional Council to Sweden’s northernmost county, Norrbotten.
Read all BarentsObserver articles from the 2009 BEAC Ministerial meeting in Murmansk.
BarentsObserver will report from the meetings in Kiruna next week.
