Svalbard

Svalbard

An archipelago beyond the Arctic Circle (74-81° N latitude, 10-35° E longitude) in the sea part of the Arctic Ocean. The area is 62.7 thousand km². The archipelago has over 1,000 islands. There is no indigenous population; approximately 1,500 Norwegians, 950 Russians, and about 400 citizens of other countries reside there.

Svalbard, along with the island of Bear Island located to the south, forms the administrative district of Norway known as Svalbard, which is governed by a governor appointed by the King of Norway. The administrative center is Longyearbyen.

Until 1920, the archipelago was considered "terra nullius." In February 1920, representatives of several European countries, the USA, and Japan signed an international treaty in Paris, establishing Norway's sovereignty over Svalbard. According to the treaty, citizens of the countries that signed it are granted equal rights with Norwegians to engage in economic and scientific activities on the archipelago, and the use of the archipelago for military purposes is prohibited. Svalbard was officially declared part of Norwegian territory in 1925; at the same time, the "Mining Code" was adopted, regulating the conduct of mining operations on the archipelago. The USSR joined the Svalbard treaty in 1935. In 1947, the Norwegian parliament adopted a resolution noting the special economic interests of the Soviet Union in Svalbard. The archipelago has a Russian consulate and one Russian settlement - Barentsburg.

60% of the archipelago's territory is covered by ice. Of the mineral resources, only coal has industrial significance. Norway extracts coal in the Svea settlement area (about 2.9 million tons in 2004), while Russia does so in the Barentsburg area (160 thousand tons in 2004).

The waters of the archipelago are home to cod, halibut, haddock, Greenland seals, harbor seals, and belugas; on the islands, there are polar bears, arctic foxes, and reindeer. However, fishing and hunting are conducted on a limited scale.

Svalbard is connected (from June to November) by sea through the Norwegian port of Tromsø and the Russian port of Murmansk. Since 1974, there has been regular air service between Norway and Svalbard. In the same year, a Soviet-Norwegian agreement was concluded regarding the use of the Norwegian state civil airfield in Svalbard by Soviet aircraft.