SPITZBERGEN AREA

Evening Star, Issue 26001, 16 January 1947, Page 7

SPITZBERGEN AREA

SOVIET-NORWEGIAN NEGOTIATIONS UNDERSTANDING REACHED LONDON, January 15. An understanding has been, reached in the Soviet-Norwegian negotiations about the necessity- for the joint defence of the Spitzbergen Archipelago, according to an official communique issued by the Tass Agency. The Tass communique said the Soviet negotiations were held in 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 no-man’s land, was signed without the, Soviet Union’s knowledge, and 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 Spitzbergen Archipelago to the Soyiet is seen from the fact that prior to 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 the amount of 400,000 tons a year, while the total output 'of coal in Spitzbergen amounted to from 600,000 to 650,000 tons, t During the 1944 and 1945 Soviet-Norwegian negotiations, an understanding was reached about the necessity for joint defence of the Spitzbergen Archipelago. Consultations with the .Allied Governments concerned regarding the revisio'n of the 1920 treaty were also envisaged, but the negotiations were not completed.” ' The communique added that in November, 1946, M.~ Molotov and the Norwegian Foreign Minister, M. Halyard Lange, exchanged opinions on Spitzbergen defence during the United Nations Assembly in New York “in the spirit of the previous negotiations.”