Norwegian-Russian Military Summit in Kirkenes, highnorthnews.com

Chief of the Norwegian Joint Headquarters (NJHQ) Yngve Odlo will this week meet with Lieutenant General Stanislav Maslov, Chief of the FSB Border Directorate, in Kirkenes, Norway. The two Lieutenant Generals will on Wednesday preside over the first protocol meeting between the NJHQ and the FSB Border Service since October 2019.

A press release says the Covid-19 pandemic has made it challenging to conduct physical meetings between the delegations from the Russian Federal Security Services’ (FSB) Border Service of the Western Arctic Areas and the Joint Headquarters.

Norway has, like NATO, suspended its bilateral military cooperation with Russia since 2014. Activities shielded from this suspension include a.o. cooperation about coastguard and border control, areas in which annual protocol meetings still take place.

Cooperation on the Norwegian-Russian border is based on the border demarcation agreement between Norway and Russia dating back to 29 December 1949. In other words, it is thus a historically rooted cooperation characterized by an open and good dialogue between the border control forces and the Norwegian and also Russian border commissioners, the press statement says. Läs artikel