Around the same time as IKEA opened in the Barents region, the Norwegian governmental report Strategies for the northern areas (Nordområdestrategi) was released, on December 1st. 2006.
This report presents a very clear ambition from the Norwegian side to increase both the political and economic investment in the region.
The Norwegian minister of foreign affairs presents a proposal to establish an economic and industrial cooperation zone - the Pomor Zone - in the border areas of Norway and Russia.
4. New national ambitions
Partly, this Norwegian urge to cooperate was of course grounded in the fact that the worlds biggest undeveloped offshore natural gas reserves - Shtokman - was located in the Barents Sea, at the Russian side of the border. And that the two major Norwegian oil- and gas-companies just a few moths back had been turned down by the major Russian company Gazprom as partners in the development of Shtokman.
Jonas Gahr Støre (1960-)
Hot High North
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