Kenya’s top diplomat Musalia Mudavadi receiving Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide at his Nairobi office. Photo: Handout

Norway says it never fueled the legal challenge mounted by Mogadishu against Nairobi over a bitter maritime boundary dispute.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, while engaging with Kenyan Foreign Policy on the ties between Kenya and Norway, clarified Oslo’s role during the dispute at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Indian Ocean border.

The case, decided in October 2021, largely favored Somalia’s arguments that there had been no definitive maritime boundary between the two countries.

Norway had been involved in the dispute, leading to diplomatic protests from Nairobi accusing the Nordic country’s corporates of fueling the legal challenge.

“We have no bilateral problems. On the contrary, we have a lot of common concerns about the world and about the neighborhood,” Eide responded to a question from Kenyan Foreign Policy at the University of Nairobi on Thursday May 6, while marking 60 years of diplomatic relations.

Norway had denied any ill role at the time too.

“And I think what we will be speaking about is how we can even further strengthen our cooperation on Sudan, South Sudan, Horn of Africa, DRC, but also on the global arena like UN reform and UN financial or international financial system reform,” he said.

Norway’s role began earlier when Norwegian diplomat Hans Wilhelm Longva drew up a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2009 as part of his country’s “technical assistance” to African countries.

Somalia later rejected the MoU even though both sides had signed it.

When Nairobi objected to the case at the ICJ, the court ruled that the MoU was not the product of negotiations between the two sides and could not be owned by Somalia or Kenya.

Somali judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, then Vice President of the ICJ, argued Kenya and Somalia should have used their own legal teams to draft the document instead.

“No government can afford today to put its signature to a bilateral legal instrument which it has neither carefully negotiated nor to which it has hardly contributed,” he wrote, referring to the 2009 MoU between Kenya and Somalia.

The court ordered a re-demarcation of the boundary, drawing a line between the two sides’ contested areas.

Norwegian firms were accused of pushing Somalia to sue, as they had an interest in exploring the gas in the disputed sea area, though the gas was later found to be unviable.

In Nairobi, Eide spoke of Kenya and Norway’s cooperation in seeking global peace and security.

He admitted the double standards of his country’s Western allies were hurting global peace efforts, including in the search for peace in the region.

Eide described Kenya and Norway as “multilateralists and partners for peace and security in a divided world.”

He praised Kenya’s involvement in regional peace efforts, arguing it was the right thing to do as peace in a volatile neighborhood could only attract a burden on Nairobi.

Eide inevitably addressed current conflicts such as Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“I have been very vocal in criticizing many of my Western friends for not being clear on this situation… There are those who say out there, actually many key countries, ‘Look, the principles are not applied equally across the planet, so there are no principles.’ That is a dangerous path. The right way to say is principles are not being applied equally around the planet so we have to make sure they are applied equally across the world,” he said, referring to the issues of Ukraine and Gaza specifically.

Both conflicts have taken global attention but have seen varied responses from Western powers such as the US, UK, and Germany.

While they rallied the world against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they haven’t been as energetic in limiting Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Eide criticized Israel for failing to distinguish between fighters, military, and civilians, and not observing the principle of proportionality.

“We have terrible suffering in Palestine inflicted by Israeli response to what was initially a terrorist Hamas attack in Israel, but all use of military force has to be restrained by the rules of warfare, international humanitarian law, and we feel Israel is in grave violation of these principles of international humanitarian law,” he said.

He avoided the genocide debate, indicating the case filed by South Africa against Israel should clarify the issue.

He argued rules of war should apply equally to everyone, including appropriate punishment for those who break them.

The US cheered when Russian leaders were indicted by the International Criminal Court but reacted angrily after Israeli leaders were indicted by the same court.

The US Congress went as far as to threaten sanctions on the court officials last week.

Norway, like Kenya, he argued, identifies development as based on rules-based multilateralism.

The current situation, however, has led to anarchy with people acting while knowing they could dodge penalties for their actions.

“We have been working closely with Kenya on the peacebuilding of Sudan and South Sudan and the Horn of Africa as well as the DRC and the neighborhood around there. All these crises need our attention. They need a consistent and principled approach,” he said.

He admitted that world attention being taken by Gaza and Ukraine means other crises, especially in Africa, are being neglected.

Sudan’s war began earlier than Gaza’s, but the world failed to mediate a ceasefire, leading to continual fighting.

At least 18,000 people have died since then, as fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces continues.

Norway and Kenya have had diplomatic relations for the last 60 years, reflecting on challenges from poverty and the Cold War to today’s issues like climate change, political instability, and poverty.

“These are the areas that are very crucial to mankind and require international cooperation.Sadly, this is affected by the return of geopolitical competition. We need to build the trust in multilateral institutions that they matter in order to save lives, and economies and help countries thrive because this also makes us thrive,” he said.