Norwegian monarch visits polar Svalbard as interest in Arctic grows
Norway’s King Harald and Queen Sonja visited the main settlement on the strategically located Arctic archipelago of Svalbard on Monday, at a time of increased interest in the resource-rich polar region from the U.S., Russia and China.
Focus on the Arctic’s strategic importance for mining, shipping and security has increased sharply because of repeated statements by U.S. President Donald Trump that he wants to take over Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.
The Arctic also holds fossil fuels and minerals beneath the land and the seabed and is an area of military and economic competition.
“Svalbard is an important part of Norway and thus important to us all,” King Harald, 88, said in a speech in Longyearbyen, the archipelago’s main settlement.
“We see an increased interest in the Arctic and Svalbard. This creates challenges as well as possibilities.”
The royal visit comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron visited Greenland in a show of European solidarity.
Svalbard – which officially became part of Norway in 1925 – lies roughly midway between the North Pole and the European mainland. King Harald’s visit is to mark a century of Norwegian sovereignty.
On Saturday, for the first time in his 34-year reign, the king visited the southernmost island on the archipelago, Bear Island, to underline that it belongs to Norway. The island is home to a meteorological station with around 10 staff, rotating every six months.
It is governed under a 1920 treaty which also allows citizens of signatory states to settle there without a visa.
The Svalbard treaty restricts military use of the archipelago, but the islands are not a demilitarized zone. Russia has in the past accused Norway of militarizing Svalbard, which Oslo denies.
Norway is NATO’s monitor for the vast 2 million square km (772,204 square miles) area of the North Atlantic, which includes the waters between Svalbard and the European mainland, used by the Russian northern fleet’s nuclear submarines.
Svalbard has two Russian settlements, Barentsburg and Pyramiden, with 297 residents currently out of a total population of 2,863, according to Statistics Norway.
China, which calls itself a “near-Arctic” state, wants to create a “Polar Silk Road” as an alternative shipping route to reduce its dependence on the Strait of Malacca.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Five things to know about Canada’s plan to meet the NATO defence spending target, CBC News
Denmark: Denmark approves US military bases on Danish soil as Trump eyes Greenland, The Associated Press
Finland: US, Norwegian forces in Lapland for rapid reinforcement exercise, The Independent Barents Observer
Iceland: Iceland’s FM announces defence review, calls revamped security policy ‘urgent’, Eye on the Arctic
Norway: Preparing for trouble, Norway erects fence at exposed border sections, CBC News
Russia: Drone attack on Russian warplanes, including in Arctic, serious blow to strategic arsenal, The Associated Press
Sweden: Nordic-Baltic region joins forces around Sweden’s CV90, The Independent Barents Observer
United States: White House releases U.S. Arctic strategy implementation plan, Eye on the Arctic
