Ratification in two weeks
The treaty on delimitation of the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean is currently under discussion by the Norwegian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence.
The Standing Committee will submit its recommendation to the plenum in the Parliament on Monday December 13th, according to the schedule posted on the Parliament’s web-portal.
The delimitation deal was signed in Murmansk on September 15th by the two Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Jonas Gahr Støre. Both Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev attended the signing in Murmansk. Both said they the two sides intended to synchronize the ratification of the deal.
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The upcoming ratification of the maritime border deal is believed to be unproblematic. Both countries have underlined the importance of the deal, and Dmitri Medvedev said at the press-conference in Murmansk that when Russia signs a deal, they also intend to follow it with ratification.
According to the online publication Oilinfo, the final ratification in the Norwegian Parliament could be on December 16th. The date for the ratification in the Russian State Duma is not yet said, but also believed to be before Russian Christmas.
