But it was an unpleasant reminder that some in the city hanker after its violent past rather than a better future. A local MP fumed: "All the positive potential that this conference held for Belfast has been put at risk as - once again - our old problems came back to haunt us." To see delegates herded out on to the streets because of a bomb scare was, he added, "disheartening to say the least" Nor was this all. On Saturday someone telephoned bomb warnings to Down Royal racecourse, just outside Belfast, where one of the most popular meetings in the Irish racing calendar was taking place. But the appetite simply isn't there. Instead the city turned out on Halloween night last week to watch thousands of fireworks exploding overhead and delightfully lighting up the skies. For some of the older and more nervous in the audience the spectacle, particularly the loud bangs, evoked slightly unwelcome memories of the days when explosions occurred every night in Belfast, not just at Halloween. But although the days of frequent detonations are in the past, there are still occasional reminders that this is not a tranquil city and that some chronically slow learners still yearn nostalgically for the bad old days. You might think that republicans would find some merit in commemorating an alleged Catholic attempt to blow up the House of Lords.
You might think the likes of the Rev Ian Paisley would see political advantage in highlighting Catholic treachery, medieval or modern. It liberally bedecks itself with pumpkins, ghosts, witches and ghouls Plastic skulls are, for some reason, particularly popular. Herein lies a set of challenges and opportunities for Norway, Russia and Europe and the United States.. Belfast doesn't really do Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot: instead it flings itself enthusiastically into celebrating Halloween. The Barents Sea will also become an important source of energy supply to Europe and North America. Perhaps as much as a quarter of the world's undiscovered petroleum reserves may be located in the Arctic Politically this is a stable region. In the years to come, Britain, continental Europe and the United States may well be looking to the High North for additional supplies of oil and gas.Thus the issue of energy supply from the Arctic region is replacing the old Cold War agenda of military balances.
The strategic position of the area is shifting from a military security perspective to a perspective more marked by energy security and sustainable resource management.The Barents Sea contains vast natural resources - renewable and non-renewable It is Europe's largest fish pond. This is where Norway and Russia meet, on land and in the Barents Sea. During the Cold War, it was the area where East met West, where Nato met the Warsaw Pact, where the balance of power relied on the number of intercontinental missiles and the operating scope of strategic and tactical submarines.The military scenarios of confrontation and invasion are now collecting dust. Norwegian jurisdiction in the Arctic and Barents Seas covers an area six times the size of mainland Norway, that is almost the size of the entire European Union.For decades, this was a frozen region, literally and politically. The High North literally means the area beyond the top of most maps of Europe. Weather reports on European TV put a cap on Europe at around the 60th parallel, thus only including the three Nordic capitals of Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki, but not much more. When we pass the 70th parallel, when we pass the Arctic Circle, we enter the vast Barents region One third of mainland Norway lies north of the circle. Let me share with you our reading of developments in our immediate neighbourhood - the High North, a central theme of Norway's foreign policy in the years to come.