NATO's Parliamentary Assembly's next gathering will take place on Svalbard. 80 to 100 NATO politicians will meet in Longyearbyen between the 8th and 10th of May. At the meeting, they will amongst others discuss the security policy situation.
No military professionals
It is emphasized to HNN that no professional military persons will attend the meeting in Longyearbyen.
In 2004 the attendees even went on a visit to Barentsburg, the Russian settlement on Svalbard.
Discussing Security Policy
This was clearly demonstrated when the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitrij Rogozin made a stop-over in Longyearbyen on his way to the North Pole. Rogozin was on the EU's, and thereby also on Norway's, sanction list.
Protested against NATO
According to the Annual Report from the Norwegian part of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly, one of the main questions in 2016 was "political and military initiatives following Russian's annexation of Crimea and its intervention in Eastern Ukraine, which were both a violation of Public International Law".
