MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. A Norwegian naval ship’s visit to the Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen indicates a growing trend towards Norway’s latent militarization of the archipelago, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Friday.
"We have taken note of a report the Norwegian Navy’s frigate The Thor Heyerdahl visited Spitsbergen’s port of Longyearbyen lately. The Norwegian naval ship’s visit to the archipelago was another in a series of Oslo’s steps to include this territory in the sphere of its military efforts," the commentary runs.
"In combination with the satellite tracking station Svalsat, located on the archipelago, which is technically capable of performing dual tasks, the use of Longyear airport by military transport planes and the patrolling of Spitsbergen’s area by coast guard ships all these facts indicate there is a trend towards the archipelago’s latent militarization by the Norwegian side," Zakharova said.
She recalled that Norway earlier spread to Spitsbergen the operation of the national law on ports and waterways, which implies the use of the archipelago’s infrastructure in Norway’s military planning, including the accommodation of reinforcements from NATO’s allies. Also, the Norwegian authorities suggested restricting access to information about the seabed around Spitsbergen, while making exceptions for the Norwegian military and NATO partners.
"This show of military muscle arouses certain concern as evidence of neglect of the spirit of the Spitsbergen Treaty of 1920, which established the archipelago’s purely peaceful status, and also contradicts Oslo’s professed goal of preserving low tensions in high latitudes," Zakharova said.