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DE RUEHNY #0586/01 2651558
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 221558Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY OSLO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7825
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 OSLO 000586 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/NB, EUR/RUS, OES/OPA, AND INR 
 
(C O R R E C T E D  C O P Y) - TEXT ERRORS 
 
¶E. O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SENV CVIS PREL ECON SV XQ NO RU
SUBJECT: Svalbard - Norwegian Territory with a Twist 
 
OSLO 00000586  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
SBU - PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY: Pol/Econ counselor traveled to Svalbard 
Sep 1-4 as part of a Norwegian and international group 
hosted by two Norwegian security policy related NGOs. 
The group toured the main settlement on Svalbard -- 
Longyearbyen -- as well as visiting the Russian mining 
community in Barentsburg.  Svalbard played host the same 
week to an extended visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, 
who traveled from Svalbard further into the Arctic Circle 
to view the melting ice.  The Embassy's new 
Charge d'affaires also toured parts of Svalbard in 
mid-August, along with a group of U.S. Congressional 
staffers as part of the MFA-arranged Norwegian-American 
Parliamentary Exchange Program (NAPEP).  His tour included 
what is left of the other Russian settlement at Pyramiden as 
well as the Kongsberg Satellite Station, of which NASA is a 
prime customer. Positioned high up in the Arctic Circle at 
78 degrees north latitude, the territory's importance to 
Norway stems from its unique location for contributing to 
research on climate change and melting polar ice, as well a 
s the potential it represents for both collaboration and 
potential competition with Russia in Norway's High North 
and security policy. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (U) Pol/Econ Counselor toured Svalbard September 1-4 as 
part of a Norwegian and international group sponsored by two 
Norwegian think tanks/NGS - the Norwegian Atlantic Committee 
and People and Defense (Folk og Forsvar).  The Dutch DCM in 
Oslo and two other Americans were also on the trip, one 
civilian from NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers 
Europe (SHAPE) office and one George Washington University 
professor.  Svalbard is a group of islands far north of the 
mainland of Norway into the Arctic Circle, at 78 degrees 
North latitude.  The territory measures 63,000 square kilometers, 
very roughly the size of Ireland, but is home to only 
about 2,700 to 3,000 inhabitants year round and slightly 
more in the summer when hundreds of scientists pour in from 
across the globe for various field experiments.  Tour guides 
like to point out the polar bear population on the island 
chain is closer to 3,000.  The entire territory of Svalbard 
falls under Norwegian sovereignty, but is open 
internationally, as described in more detail below. 
This makes the territory unique in many respects in 
Norwegian and international law. 
 
¶3.  (U) Some 2,000 to 2,200 of Svalbard's inhabitants 
live in the Norwegian mining town of Longyearbyen (on the 
west coast of the main island of Spitsbergen) where the 
Governor's office, the Norwegian Polar Institute, the 
University Centre in Svalbard, and the Great Norwegian 
Mining Company headquarters are located.  The other main 
population center is the Russian mining town of Barentsburg, 
south of Longyearbyen and also on the west coast of Spitsbergen. 
Having once housed well over 1,000 people, Barentsburg is now 
 home to about 550 inhabitants comprised of Russians 
and - according to our group's Russian tour guide - some 
70 percent Ukrainians.  There are hardly any surface roads 
of any significant distance in all of Svalbard, and there 
is no road connecting Longyearbyen and Barentsburg. 
The only connections between the predominantly Norwegian 
and predominantly Russian towns are by ferry boat in summer 
or by snow mobile across the mountains in winter. 
From Barentsburg, there is a charter plane to and from Moscow 
once every two months, which transports mining company staff 
and their families and delivers the town's main supply of 
food and produce.  The settlement does not trade much with 
Longyearbyen or with Tromso, the nearest port of entry into 
mainland Norway some 200-250 miles (check) south across the 
arctic waters.  Interestingly, there does not appear to be 
a border crossing or other port of entry into Norway in 
Barentsburg at the ferry port or at the site of the Russian 
charter plane's landing. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) A few interesting facts about Barentburg: 
The Russian Consulate-General at the top o the hill -- which 
we saw from a distance in our guided tour -- was a grand structure 
some four orfive stories tall, larger than many 
countries' ebassies in Oslo.  The main purpose of the 
consulte, according to the guide, was to provide consula 
 services to once thriving Russian community in arentsburg 
and surrounding towns.  For economic easons, Russia has 
since closed down its mining operations in the town of 
Pyramiden and other locations. 
 
¶5.  (U) The Russian mine in Barentsburg has not yet been fully 
 
OSLO 00000586  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
repaired after a fire and the subsequent required flooding of 
the mine in 2008.   The Russian government does, however, plan 
to restore the mine and it continues to maintain and subsidize 
the town's operation.  The small settlement town is fairly well 
equipped with a Russian daycare and elementary school, a sports 
center, communal living quarters and social halls, Russian souvenir 
shops, a grocery store, a hotel (which, the guide admitted, hardly 
ever received any tourists), a small church (built as a monument to 
the 141 victims of a 1996 plane crash in the area), and a statue of 
Lenin in the main square.  The one obvious sign of Norwegian 
sovereignty over the territory was the small Royal Norwegian post 
office inside the town's Russian-run hotel.  Some photos and other 
information about Barentsburg are on the Norwegian Polar 
Institute's website at 
http://cruise-handbook.npolar.no/en/isfjorden /barentsburg.html. 
 
¶6.  (U) At the edge of the Barentsburg settlement, facing the 
harbor port, there is a Russian scientific research station, which 
the guide says employs about 12 scientists year round, plus some 
30 more who come just for the summer months. This research station 
is in addition to the Russians' research facilities in the main 
international research town of Ny Alesund, far north on the island 
of Spitsbergen. 
 
¶7. (U) As in Longyearbyen, there are no trees and few signs of plant 
life in Barentsburg; the permafrost prevents them from growing. 
The sun is out 24 hours a day for four months in summer, and it 
is then completely dark for four months in winter, until early 
to mid-March. 
 
Svalbard - Norwegian Territory but International Too 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Our group was briefed on separate occasions by the 
outgoing governor of Svalbard Per Sefland and his deputy Lars 
Faus, who plans to serve another year.  They are Norwegian 
government officials who answer to Norway's Ministry of Justice. 
Norwegian law largely applies on the island chain, with a 
few exceptions.  Chief among the exceptions is that Norway's 
immigration law and Norway's Schengen arrangement with the EU 
do not apply in Svalbard.  Instead, the Svalbard Treaty serves 
to guide immigration policy, such as it is. In practice, the 
governor and deputy admitted, the territory is not only open to 
the 40 plus States signatories to the Svalbard treaty, but to 
everyone from around the world.  People flying into Longyearbyen 
airport in Svalbard from the last stop on Norway's 
mainland - Tromso airport, or from other countries, go through 
no real customs or passport control to enter the island chain. 
 
¶9. (SBU) The area of Svalbard is a duty free shopping 
zone, and the Government of Norway collects no VAT on almost 
anything purchased in Svalbard.  When flying or sailing from 
anywhere on Svalbard back to Tromso, Oslo, or elsewhere in 
Norway, passengers are supposed to go through Norwegian and Schengen 
immigration and customs controls.  But in practice, the governor 
and deputy separately both admitted to our group the checks were not 
yet very thorough.  "It will get better by 2011, when Norway is up 
for a review of its Schengen compliance," the governor said.  The 
current state of affairs resulted in one recent case in which a 
Libyan citizen who was ineligible to reside in Norway left for 
Svalbard and tried to reenter Norway through the airport in 
Tromso in July 2009.  In that one case, he was caught by Norwegian 
authorities, but others likely try the same tactic and 
succeed, the governor indicated. 
 
Charge's visit to Svalbard with Congressional Staffers 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶10. (SBU)  Post's then-newly arrived Charge d'Affaires (CDA) also 
visited Svalbard August 13-16, along with a group of House and 
Senate staff members on the Norwegian American Parliamentary 
Exchange Program (NAPEP), hosted by the Government of Norway. 
In Longyearbyen, the group met with Svalbard Governor Per Sefland 
and also received briefings at the University Center, the Kongsberg 
satellite tracking station, and the UN's Global Seed Bank. 
These latter three institutions, along with burgeoning 
tourism, form part of Norway's largely successful effort to 
supplement coal mining (now in serious decline) with other more 
up-to-date forms of economic activity as the basis for its physical 
presence on the archipelago. 
 
¶11. (SBU) The governor explained that Norway's Svalbard policy 
is based on four principles:  1. Firm application of the 1920 
Svalbard treaty  2. Secure peace and stability in the area 
¶3. Protect and preserve the wilderness character of Svalbard, and 
¶4. Maintain Norwegian settlements in Svalbard.  The Norwegian 
government conducts an annual three-week inspection of the 
archipelago by boat. 
 
OSLO 00000586  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
The population of Svalbard does not enjoy the full health and welfare 
benefits of mainland Norwegians, the Governor said, and it is not 
intended that any of the 2500-plus Norwegian residents remain there 
permanently.  (CDA did meet one long time resident who runs dog sleds 
for tourists in the Advent Valley, and he expressed some antagonism 
at mention of the governor.  Another Svalbard resident explained 
that this was because the government's zealous policy of protecting 
the Svalbard environment is annoying to the small number of long term 
residents of Svalbard, who value unrestricted freedom to hunt and fish. 
Regarding tourism, the modern airport outside Longyearbyen has many 
full flights daily in the summer.  Flights during the long dark winter 
are much fewer, averaging three days a week.  The governor said about 
30 cruise ships visit Svalbard every summer.  He expressed concern 
about the possibility of an oil spill from one of these ships, because 
it would be "virtually impossible" to bring in the kind of equipment 
that would be required to clean up after such an event.  For this 
reason, Norway is considering a ban on the use of heavy oil by any 
vessels coming near Svalbard. 
 
¶12. (U) Tourists visiting Svalbard who travel outside of habited 
areas must be accompanied by armed guides due to the danger from 
the roughly 3000 polar bears.  Polar bears are rarely killed 
(a large stuffed specimen in the museum resulted from an attack 
on some scientists several years ago), and when they are, a complicated 
investigation must take place, similar to a homicide 
investigation, to determine if the killing was warranted. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Sefland also mentioned to the NAPEP group, as he did to 
pol/econ counselor's group in September, his serious concern that 
Svalbard represents a loophole in Norway's Schengen border, due in 
part to poor screening at Tromso airport in northern Norway. 
CDA noted that upon returning from Svalbard to Oslo on a direct 
flight, all inbound passengers from Svalbard are screened by passport 
control and customs at Gardermoen airport in Oslo. 
 
Small Russian Settlement Left at Pyramiden 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (SBU) The NAPEP delegation travelled together with other tourists 
by a small ship to the abandoned Russian mining town of 
Pyramiden, north of Longyearbyen but also on Isfjorden. 
On the way, a group of about 20 Italian tourists was let off to spend 
close to a week on their own in the wilderness, and another group of 
Europeans was picked up on the return journey from a  similar expeditio 
In Pyramiden, some 5-10 Russian men were seen working to repair the wat 
system and some of the buildings.  The Russian guide, who carried a rif 
in case polar bears approached our group, explained that the repairs we 
intended to assist in conversion of Pyramiden into a tourist destinatio 
Although CDA found the town to be an interesting time capsule of Soviet 
life (as in Barentsburg, a large statue of Lenin is a 
big photo attraction), the scale of work that would be needed to actual 
make the crumbling ghost town of Pyramiden into a money-making 
attraction would be far greater than anything that was observed. 
The "hotel" which supposedly will be the centerpiece of the project 
is a 70's era shambles.  Interestingly, it bears a sign indicating 
that the Norwegian postal service picks up and drops off mail 
there, or once did. 
 
¶15. (SBU) Sefland also hosted  a dinner for NAPEP, during which 
he told CDA that the small band of Russians working at Pyramiden 
is intended to maintain a shoestring Russian presence in that town. 
He agreed that the "work" going on there is unlikely to lead to 
any meaningful development of Pyramiden into a tourist destination. 
(Although the cruise tour NAPEP accompanied did bring tourists to 
Pyramiden, there was no opportunity to spend any money there.) 
CDA asked Sefland about contacts between the authorities on Svalbard 
and Russians at Franz Josef Land.  He said there had been requests for 
assistance, in areas like search and rescue, and he claimed that this 
reflected the fragile support that Franz Josef Land receives 
from mainland Russia. 
 
Kongsberg Satellite Station - High Tech in the High North 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶16. (U) CDA and NAPEP visited the Kongsberg Satellite Service 
Station just outside Longyearbyen, which the briefers there noted 
was the largest on earth, servicing approximately 350 satellites in 
polar orbit. (Svalbard's location at 78 degrees north makes this site 
auspicious for the purpose).  NASA's antenna is the oldest at the 
site, and the Norwegian briefers said NASA remains the station's most 
important customer.  The EU satellite system Galileo will also be 
serviced from Svalbard.  The station employs some 17 engineers and 
other personnel year round. 
 
¶17. (U) Kongsberg connected Svalbard to mainland Norway via fiber 
optic cable in 2003, to facilitate transmission of satellite data. 
 
OSLO 00000586  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
This has benefited the entire Norwegian presence in the archipelago 
(CDA noted tremendously fast broadband internet 
connection in Longyearbyen), and has facilitated the success 
and growth of the new University Center in Svalbard (UNIS). 
UNIS has a staff of 50, including 25 PhDs, and now hosts 400 students 
from 25 countries to do field scientific research on Arctic 
biology, geology, astronomy (northern lights), and 
climate (including carbon capture and storage).  UNIS dates 
from 2003, but its current modern and up to date facility was 
inaugurated by the King and Queen of Norway in 2006. 
 
¶18. (U) The UN's Global Seed Bank (GSB) is another Svalbard 
institution visited on the NAPEP trip (and later visited in early 
September by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon).  Taking advantage 
of Svalbard's climate to maintain a constant cold temperature at 
its underground vault, the GSB has the capacity to store 4.5 million 
distinct samples and over 2 billion seeds.  The GSB's purpose is to 
safeguard and insure global plant genetic diversity against 
catastrophic extinction events. 
 
 
HEG