Norway should not submit to Russia’s demands – Viji

Outgoing Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Serid (H), who has been in the ministry for four years, is now stuffing his office in the Foreign Office in cardboard boxes. She draws a red line in relations with Russia before the regime change and before the meeting with the Russians.

By Tuesday, October 26, the new Norwegian Foreign Minister will hold a meeting of Foreign Ministers at the Parents’ Council in Tromso. The regime change is expected to take place on Friday, October 15, a week earlier.

The meeting of the Parents Council is held every year. Member states Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Russia and Sweden, as well as EU Foreign Minister Joseph Borel have all been invited to the Troms.

Russia has not finally confirmed whether Lavrov will travel to the Troms. He did not attend the previous meeting in Ume in 2019, but hosted it himself Meeting of the Parents Council in Arkhangelsk in 2017.

Red line

Ine Eriksen Søreide is now asking his successor at the Foreign Ministry to vehemently oppose and reject Russia’s openness to a new Norwegian government’s wish list:

– This is something that Russia is raising and asking from all countries involved in EU control measures: they want these measures to be abolished. On the contrary: until Russia meets the requirements of the Minsk Declaration, this is a blueprint for raising measures in the long run, and we need to be consistent, Eriksen Serid tells Viji.

“Our cooperation with Russia is better than many other countries, and we are looking for new areas to cooperate with,” he added.

– But here a red line should be drawn: when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Russia seized the power of another country. International law is our first-line protection, and we must stand clear, she says.

– But now that it’s too late, many say it’s time to resolve punitive measures and sanctions?

– Violations of international law will not be eliminated over time, Russia has not fulfilled the terms of the Minsk Agreement. If they fulfill their obligations, we will eventually be in a different situation. But the foreign minister says we are not there today.

Collaborates well

She noted that the Labor Party wanted more and more cooperation with Russia.

In August, Labor leader and incumbent Prime Minister Jonas Kahar Store (Labor Party) V.G. More contact and dialogue with Russia, Whether the red-greens won the election.

Erickson Seride says it is difficult to see how the Ster government will make this statement a practical policy:

– We have good and practical cooperation with Russia. We have many common interests in the North. Together we solve questions about fisheries management and the environment. We participate in the four joint commissions at the political level, and I have been in constant political contact with my Foreign Minister colleague Lavrov.

Series of meetings

He has several meetings at the political level to mention: In 2019, Ericsson Seride moved with the Prime Minister to St. Petersburg Erna Solberg, where they met with President Vladimir Putin.

The same fall Lavrov was in KyrgyzstanOn the 75th anniversary of the release of Finmark.

Ericsson Seride had planned to return to Moscow this summer, but had to cancel it at short notice due to infection. They have met in committees and at ministerial meetings.

The last time she sat down in a casual meeting with Lavro. In May there was Reykjavik.

– He says communication is important to protect neighborhood and Norwegian interests, to discuss cooperation and to set clear boundaries.

– Norway is now cooperating with Russia in which new areas?

We cooperate in the UN Security Council, although we do not agree at all. We have started a collaboration on plastic waste in the Parents Sea and we will continue with the money in the coming state budget. Ericsson Serid says Russia is also linked to the peace process in Venezuela.

Goes in the wrong direction

But then relations with Russia deteriorated in other areas:

– We closely follow the military and political development of Russia, he explains that something else will be ignored by the Norwegian authorities.

– It is worrying that Russia’s internal development is going in the wrong direction. The Duma election was a very undemocratic and less independent election. The human rights situation is deteriorating. It is tight-lipped, and has very strong anti-Western rhetoric. It is not directly aimed at Norway, but as a result of Russia’s lineup we and other countries have fewer areas of cooperation.

In people-to-people cooperation, the epidemic has reduced the chance of encountering across the border. But not only that:

– This cooperation has become increasingly difficult. The foreign minister says companies that cooperate across the border are branded as foreign agents.

There has been a very negative development for the press, where both media companies and individual journalists are branded as foreign agents because they collaborate with Norwegian actors. We have made arrangements with money and other support to continue this collaboration. But it has become increasingly difficult, he says, because the space for democracy and civil society has become smaller.

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Observed the will of the Labor Party

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Russian Foreign Ministry had indicated its willingness to work closely with the Labor Party.

– We note that the Norwegian Labor Party has previously spoken in support of our bilateral cooperation in trying to improve the climate. We will take a closer look at the new coalition government and their announced policy on Russia, Zakarova told a news conference in Moscow a few days after the parliamentary elections.

Low goals

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated on Thursday, “Relations with Russia In a low place after the Cold War.

On Wednesday, NATO expelled eight Russian ambassadors from a Russian delegation to NATO.

– They took part in a process that did not match their status, so their recognition was withdrawn, Stoltenberg told VG at a news conference Thursday.

– They are intelligence officers, he added.

It is now over It has been more than two years since the NATO-Russia Cooperation Council convened. UN Stoltenberg tells Viji that he met with Foreign Minister Lavrov in New York during the summit:

– It is not possible to agree on a new meeting. But NATO and I are ready when they are ready to meet us, says Stoltenberg.