Newest mem­ber sta­te of the Spits­ber­gen Trea­ty: Tur­key

The Spits­ber­gen Trea­ty was signed in 1920 and it came into force in 1925. It sea­led Nor­we­gi­an sove­reig­n­ty over the Sval­bard archi­pe­la­go (the name “Sval­bard” was not used in the trea­ty) and regu­la­tes access for citi­zens of trea­ty mem­ber sta­tes.

Fre­d­rik Wedel Jarls­berg, the Nor­we­gi­an nego­tia­tor in Paris,
signed the Spits­ber­gen Trea­ty on 09th Febru­ary 1920 in Ver­sailles.

A ran­ge of count­ries have joi­n­ed the trea­ty sin­ce 1925. Until recent­ly, Lat­via and North Korea (!) had been the latest new mem­bers. Both joi­n­ed the trea­ty in 2016.

In April 2024, howe­ver, Anka­ra rati­fied their signa­tu­re under the Spits­ber­gen Trea­ty. Sin­ce then, Tur­key is the latest signa­to­ry coun­try.

This will not chan­ge much in real life: Nor­way does not make a dif­fe­rence bet­ween citi­zens of mem­ber sta­tes and tho­se from other count­ries. The­re are, for exam­p­le, more than 200 peo­p­le from Thai­land and the Phil­li­pi­nes living in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Their respec­ti­ve count­ries of ori­gin are not mem­bers of the Spits­ber­gen trea­ty.

Tur­key appears to be inte­res­ted on a dif­fe­rent level, as the Barents Obser­ver wri­tes: recent­ly in July, a dele­ga­ti­on from Tur­key visi­ted Pyra­mi­den, a for­mer Rus­si­an coal mining sett­le­ment in Isfjord, to look at the poten­ti­al of run­ning a rese­arch faci­li­ty the­re. Rus­sia has announ­ced plans to deve­lop Pyra­mi­den as an alter­na­ti­ve to Ny-Åle­sund, whe­re a ran­ge of count­ries run rese­arch faci­li­ties under Nor­we­gi­an lea­der­ship.

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