Norway Is So Nice That It Wants to Give Finland a Mountain for Its Birthday
Norway is contemplating giving Finland a mountain for its birthday.
While U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump threatens to build walls to separate the United States from its neighbors, the famously friendly Nordic countries are contemplating what gifts to give one another for important milestones.
While U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump threatens to build walls to separate the United States from its neighbors, the famously friendly Nordic countries are contemplating what gifts to give one another for important milestones.
Up next? Finland’s 100th birthday. And neighboring Norway may give the country — home to 5.5 million people, 2 million saunas, and 188,000 lakes — a new mountain peak to call its highest.
Norway’s government confirmed on Thursday that it is seriously considering moving their border with Finland so that one of the Halti mountain fell peaks, Halditsohkka, which reaches 1,365 meters, or 4,478 feet, will fall in Finnish territory.
It is currently only 131 feet away from the Finnish border, and the range’s other peak, which is a bit taller, is slightly further into Norway.
“There are a few formal difficulties and I have not yet made my final decision,” Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg told broadcaster NRK on Thursday. “But we are looking into it.”
There have long been discussions about the move, and local Norwegian politicians have written to Oslo to request that it be moved.
Svein Leiros, mayor of Norwegian village of Kafjord said the peak “would be a wonderful gift to our sister nation.”
“We want to reach out a hand to our neighbor that we will be able to shake across the summit,” he said.
Norwegian officials have some time to decide. Finland will celebrate its 100th anniversary of independence from Russia next December.
The prime minister’s confirmation that the plan is seriously on the table came just months after Michael Tetzschner, deputy chair of the parliamentary scrutiny committee, told a Norwegian newspaper that the plan is “a joke” and could violate Norway’s constitution.
Photo credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Siobhán O'Grady was a staff writer at Foreign Policy from 2015-2016 and was previously an editorial fellow.
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