Newsletter: Border Politics, Energy and Troubled Fisheries
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Labor) drew up the lines of the new Norwegian government’s High North policy in his speech at the University of Tromsø last week. (Photo: Astri Edvardsen)
Dear reader! A depopulated High North creates security challenges, argues the Norwegian prime minister. This week, you can also meet our new journalist and read news from the fisheries industry in Icelandic waters.
A continuing drop in population figures for the North is a major security policy challenge, said Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Labor) in his High North speech in Tromsø, Norway last week:
“We Cannot Leave an Empty Void on the Border to Russia and the Arctic”.
Though in his Friday commentary this week, our Editor-in-Chief Arne O. Holm writes about the Norwegian government’s High North initiatives and how they appear to undermine one another, and about how Equinor struggles to find out how to spend its enormous profits.
“I myself struggle hard to understand the total sum of signals sent out by a government insisting that it will lead Northern Norway into another era of industrial adventure. Because its signals and tools point in all directions at once”, Holm writes.
High waves in Iceland
There are high waves in Icelandic waters these days.
Norwegian fishers say they experience discrimination during capelin fisheries near Iceland.
Norwegian Fisheries and Ocean Policy Minister Bjørnar Skjæran has gotten in touch with his Icelandic counterpart to discuss the matter.
And Japanese whaling leaves few buyers for Icelandic whale meat.
Hero and a New Journalist
Do you know a High North Hero?
Every year, the High North Center for Business and Governance awards a High North Hero prize to honor someone who leave their trace in the High North.
“We are looking for someone who can nuance the image of the Arctic” says Arctic Frontiers Director and Jury Leader Anu Fredrikson, who hopes the public will make the jury’s job a lot harder this year.
We are also very happy to introduce you to the latest addition to our editorial staff!
Political scientist, Russia expert and Tromsø native Astri Edvardsen (31) is the new journalist at High North News. She started her job in January and is already in full swing.
“With Astri onboard, we strengthen our editorial High North competence”, says a well pleased Editor-in-Chief Arne O. Holm.
Feel free to share this newsletter with others who want news from the High North. Thank you for following us!
On behalf of our editorial staff I wish you all the best for the weekend!
Trine Jonassen,
News Editor, High North News