- Project Runeberg -  Norway : official publication for the Paris exhibition 1900 /
168

(1900) [MARC]
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Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - International Position, by Ebbe Hertzberg

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Notwithstanding the principle of equality upon which the union
is and must be built, foreign affairs have hitherto been in charge
of that member of the Swedish ministry, to whom the post of
Minister for Foreign Affairs has been entrusted. It is this obvious
slight which the Norwegian Conservatives desire to have removed
by the organisation of a co-partnership in the management of
foreign affairs,
while the Norwegian Liberals as resolutely demand
the establishment of an independent Foreign Office for Norway,
urging that unity in the foreign policy of the two kingdoms will
be sufficiently guaranteed by the unity in the person of the king.

The Norwegians’ demand to have this lacuna in their
constitutional law filled up in some way or other, is the more easily
intelligible from the fact that in international respects Norway has,
in spite of the union, been able to maintain her sovereignty
and character as a separate kingdom among the States. As
already stated, her position in this respect, even during her
political connection with Denmark, was obscured rather than
actually disputed; and during the years immediately following the
establishment of the union with Sweden that sovereign position
was also occasionally pointed out in a prominent manner. Although
even the treaty of Kiel expressly declared that it was in the
character of sovereign of Norway, that the king of Sweden had
taken upon himself a share of the Dano-Norwegian national debt,
both Denmark and the Powers — and to some extent, indeed, the
Norwegians themselves in consideration of Norway’s lack of means
at that time, — sought to make Sweden co-responsible for the
amount. The result of long and arduous negotiations, however,
was that Norway was recognised as the only responsible debtor,
according to international law, and as such, she took upon
herself to pay a sum in proportion to her pecuniary ability. No
attempt has ever subsequently been made in any quarter, to
confound Norway’s international legal responsibilities or liabilities
with those of Sweden.

The union between the two kingdoms does, it is true, carry
with it a certain solidarity as against foreign Powers, whence it
follows that treaties of a strictly political nature must be either
mutual, or at any rate simultaneous and consonant. Moreover,
for practical reasons, the two kingdoms have together concluded
a large number of international agreements, which, from the point
of view of public law, might have been entered into without coalition.

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