Russia and Norway end 40-year Arctic dispute
The leaders of Russia and Norway said Tuesday they had agreed on a compromise Arctic border in the resource-rich Barents Sea, bringing an end to a 40-year dispute. "This solution is about more than a border line under the ocean. It is about developing good neighbour relations," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told a joint press conference in Oslo with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. "It will unite much more than divide, and it will become a bridge to cooperation," he added. Since 1970 Norway has been in dispute with first the Soviet Union then Russia over a 176,000-square-kilometre (67,950-square-mile) maritime area straddling their economic zones in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The surprise compromise reached during Medvedev's state visit plans for the contested zone to be divided almost equally between the two countries.