bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

The last piece of privately owned land in the strategic Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic is up for grabs, a property likely to entice China but which Norway does not intend to let go without a fight.
The archipelago is located halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, in an Arctic region that has become a geopolitical and economic hotspot as the ice melts and relations grow ever frostier between Russia and the West.
For €300 million (US$326 million), interested parties can acquire the remote Sore Fagerfjord property in southwestern Svalbard.
Measuring 60 sq km (23 square miles) – about the size of Manhattan – the property is home to mountains, plains, a glacier and about 5km of coastline, but no infrastructure.


“It’s the last private land in Svalbard, and, to our knowledge, the last private land in the world’s High Arctic,” said lawyer Per Kyllingstad, who represents the sellers.
“The Chinese are naturally potential buyers since they’ve been showing a real interest in the Arctic and Svalbard for a long time,” he said, adding that he had received “concrete signs of interest” from the country.
Since China’s 2018 white paper on the Arctic – a sign of its interest in the region – the country has defined itself a “near-Arctic state” and plans to play a growing role in the region.
Svalbard is governed by a 1920 international treaty that leaves ample room for foreign interests.
It recognises Norway’s sovereignty over Svalbard, but citizens of all signatories – including China – are equally entitled to exploit the region’s natural resources.
Russia, for example, has maintained a coal mining community on Svalbard, via the state-run company Trust Arktikugol, for decades.
But times have changed.
Keen to protect its sovereignty, Norway would not look kindly on the Sore Fagerfjord property falling into foreign hands.


Especially hands in China, which Norway’s intelligence services say poses the biggest security risk to the Scandinavian country after Russia.
Norway’s Attorney General has therefore ordered the owners – a company controlled by a Russian-born Norwegian, according to local media – to call off the planned sale.
“The land can’t be sold without the Norwegian authorities’ approval,” Trade and Industry Minister Cecilie Myrseth said.
“Nor is it possible to hold negotiations about the property,” she added.
That argument is based on clauses of an old loan granted by the state in 1919. Kyllingstad insists the clauses’ statute of limitations has expired.
The Norwegian state owns 99.5 per cent of Svalbard and has declared most of the land, including the Sore Fagerfjord property, protected areas where construction and motorised transport, among other things, are prohibited.

But the sellers don’t see things that way, and cite the 1920 treaty.
“All parties (who signed the treaty) have the same rights,” stressed Kyllingstad, noting that Norway had built housing, an airport and a harbour in Longyearbyen, the archipelago’s main town.
“Imagine if Norway now adopted rules limiting the activities of Russian holdings,” he said. “It would be World War Three.”
According to Andreas Osthagen of the Fridtjof Nansen research institute, the Sore Fagerfjord land has “minimal” economic value and its possible sale does not represent “a huge threat” to Norway.
But, he noted, “owning land on Svalbard could have a strategic value in 50 or 100 years”.
In the meantime, any mention of possible Chinese interest in Svalbard property raises “a red flag to force the Norwegian authorities to do something”.
In 2016, the government paid €33.5 million to acquire the second-last piece of private land on Svalbard, near Longyearbyen, which was also reportedly being eyed by Chinese investors.
Critics subsequently accused the government of being misled over unsubstantiated arguments.
In 2018-2019, the state had already engaged in negotiations to buy Sore Fagerfjord but the talks collapsed over the price.
Trade and Industry Minister Myrseth said the option was still open if the terms were “realistic”.


Son of Norway crown princess detained for week in rape probe

Undersea cables in Baltic Sea cut, Germany and Finland fear sabotage

Women switched at birth in 1965 sue Norway over government cover-up

Downtown Oslo tram derails and plows into shop, injuring 4

Nordic nations

For sale: a unique piece of land in strategic Arctic archipelago. Will Chinese buy it?

The snowcapped mountains of Svalbard near Longyearbyen, the archipelago’s main town. Photo: Reuters

Longyearbyen, the archipelago’s main town. Photo: AFP

Is China-Russia cooperation in the Arctic a double-edged sword for Beijing?

Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

China plans massive listening programme at the North Pole after declaring success in Arctic test of underwater device

Chinese scientists put China’s first underwater listening device in the Arctic Ocean on floating ice. Photo: Polar Research Institute of China

The Chinese government has conducted several surveys and placed many monitoring devices, including buoys, in the Arctic region but this 2021 trial was the first time it installed a listening device there, the institute said. Photos: Polar Research Institute of China

China starts building third icebreaker, which scientists say could send researchers to polar seabeds by 2025

China’s first icebreaker, Xuelong 1, is mainly used to bring supplies to the country’s polar stations and to support scientific research. Photo: Xinhua

Putin boasts of ‘Arctic power’ as Russia launches nuclear-powered icebreakers

The Ural icebreaker will begin work in December. File photo: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Sputnik via AP

News

World

Europe

Property about the size of Manhattan is the ‘last private land in the world’s High Arctic’
Lawyer representing sellers says he has received ‘concrete signs of interest’ from China


The last piece of privately owned land in the strategic Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic is up for grabs, a property likely to entice China but which Norway does not intend to let go without a fight.


Norway

For sale: a unique piece of land in strategic Arctic archipelago. Will Chinese buy it?

Property about the size of Manhattan is the ‘last private land in the world’s High Arctic’ Lawyer representing sellers says he has received ‘concrete signs of interest’ from China

Property about the size of Manhattan is the ‘last private land in the world’s High Arctic’

Lawyer representing sellers says he has received ‘concrete signs of interest’ from China