October 15, 2016

Norway will not give Finland a mountain for its birthday.

It's Finland's 100th birthday next year, and there has been a social media campaign to get Norway to give Finland the summit of Halti mountain, which is already partly in Finland, with the summit just 66 feet inside of Norway. It would hardly change the border at all to redraw the map to put the summit on the Finnish side.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the Norwegian constitution bars giving up any territory and the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said no to the cute birthday idea.

I made a screen grab from Google maps:

13 comments:

David Begley said...

Borders don't matter and who cares about the constitution. Have RBG decide the case.

Crimso said...

The Vikings would have wept at the civility of it all.

mikee said...

Hey, the nations worked up over Tibet, Crimea and the West Bank should try the same thing, and decide the issue just as civilly.

mccullough said...

Give them a fleet of choppers so they can visit the summit without violating the border

Bad Lieutenant said...

How about land swaps?

YoungHegelian said...

A strange & rarely noticed piece of European geo-politics is that Norway shares a northern border with Russia.

I first noticed it as a boy when we would play "Diplomacy" & found one could move an army from Norway to St. Petersburg through the northern border.

ronalddewitt said...

"Finland, Finland, Finland! Finland has it all."

richardsson said...

That mountain is well north of the Arctic Circle and where thirteen generations of my Swedish ancestors owned a farm. It's where the sun doesn't set for a week in June and it doesn't rise for a week in December. By comparison, the weather in Minnesota seemed to my grandfather like California was to us. But, I wouldn't count on the Norwegians giving up any of their land to Finland or anyone else. After all, they celebrate the 17th of May (Sjutton De Mai) as a national holiday...the day they gained their independence from Sweden.

Howard said...

YH I was a young man when I learned that Norway borders USSR in the first episode of my favorite spy series of all time.

The_Sandbaggers

The Sandbaggers S01E01 First Principles youtube

Craig Landon said...

Howard @3:12 pm
Thanks for the references(s).

Crimso said...

"A strange & rarely noticed piece of European geo-politics is that Norway shares a northern border with Russia."

I saw a news story some months ago in which it was stated that enough heavy equipment for a division of U.S. Marines was being prepositioned in caves in northern Norway. Within easy striking distance of Murmansk.

Rusty said...

Crimso

There is also talk of prepositioning a couple of companies of Marines there too. Maybe Norway knows something we don't.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Aren't summits usually right AT the border and therefore shared?