In a meeting on March 6, 2024, the Russian Federation Council approved the end of the fisheries agreement between the former USSR and the UK. This marks another example of the deep rift in relations between Russia and the West.
At the time, on May 25, 1956, during the administration of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, an agreement was signed between the governments of the then USSR and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The treaty allowed British vessels to fish in certain areas of the Barents Sea along the coast of the Kola Peninsula and to sail and anchor freely in these waters. The agreement remained in force even after the collapse of the USSR, as Russia became its legal successor.
According to the Duma, the decision to end the agreement was made due to the fact that the United Kingdom ended the Most Favored Nation clause in its bilateral trade agreement in March 2022.
“The agreement is predominantly one-sided and there are no similar or corresponding benefits for the Russian Federation,” the Kremlin’s website states. It was emphasized that the fisheries agreement was absolutely insignificant for Russia from a financial point of view.
A huge amount of cod and haddock sold in fish and chip stores across the country traditionally originates from these waters. The British newspaper “The Daily Mail” reported on 18 January 2024 that British fishermen harvested more than 566,000 tons of cod in the Barents Sea back in 2023.
However, this number cannot conceal the fact that the UK’s unofficial national dish has been under heavy pressure. On the one hand, many stores can no longer afford the sharp rise in the cost of producing chippies and have therefore been forced to close. According to the British government, prices for cod and haddock, the two main types of fish’n’chips, rose by around 75 percent in 2023. This is partly due to declining fish stocks in the traditional fishing grounds, meaning that fishermen have had to move to other regions or import expensive fish, for example from Greenland. According to newspaper reports, up to a third of all stores in the UK could close in the coming years as a result.
Heiner Kubny, PolarJournal
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