JOINT DEFENCE OF SPITZBERGEN

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25084, 16 January 1947, Page 7

JOINT DEFENCE OF SPITZBERGEN

Soviet Talks With Norway RUSSIAN ACCOUNT

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, January 15. An understanding has been reached in the negotiations oetween Russia and Norway about the necessity for joint defence of the Spitzbergen Archipelago, according to an official communique issued by the Tass News Agency. The communique said negotiations were conducted m 1944 and early in 1945, when the Russians raised the issue of revising the 1920 Spitzbergen Treaty.

“That treaty, which fundamentally changed the status of the Spitzbergen Islands, until then considered a noman’s land, was signed without the Soviet Union’s knowledge, and inasmuch as the signatories included States which fought against the Allied Powers, that treaty cannot remain valid. The treaty utterly disregards the interests of Soviet security in the north, as well as important Soviet economic interests.

“As regards the problem of Soviet security, the Second World War proved that the Spitzbergen Islands are of exceptional importance in this respect for the Soviet in the north. The economic importance of the Spitzbergen Archipelago to the Soviet is seen from the tact that before the Second World War, the northern districts of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Navy were supplied with coal mined by Soviet organisations in Spitzbergen to an amount of 400,000 tons a year, while the total output of coal in Spitzbergen was between 600,000 tons and 650.000etons. “During the Soviet-Norwegian negotiations in 1944 and 1945 an understanding was reached about the necessity for joint defence of the Spitzbergen Archipelago. Consultations with the Allied Governments concerned regarding the revision of the 1920 treaty were also envisaged, but the negotiations were not completed.” The communique added that in November, 1946, during the meeting of the United Nations’ Assembly in New York, the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Molotov, and the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Mr Oscar Lange, exchanged opinions on the defence of the Spitzbergen Islands “in the spirit of the previous negotiations.”