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Kirkenes-Nikel
It is also to be noted that the trend, as to twinning in northern Europe, has not been a straight-
forward one of increasing success and deepening integration. Instead, the outbreak of the world
economic crisis (2008) as well as the subsequent crisis of the Eurozone and the new round of the
Schengen zone‘s expansion (2007) has to some extent impacted the unfolding of twinning in
northern Europe. Progress has over the recent years been limited with the case of Tornio-
Haparanda standing out as an exception.
It appears, against this background, that the initiative pertaining to Kirkenes-Nikel, taken in 2008,
breaks the pattern. It emerges as a kind of late-comer and represents an attempt to revive the very
idea and spirit of twinning in northern Europe. Moreover, the initiative did not just emerge in a
dialogue between the cities themselves as also the Norwegian and Russian foreign ministries were
actively involved in pushing for such an outcome. They did so, it appears, as part of an effort to
initiate broader regional and cross-border cooperation between the two countries through this, then
providing the twinning between Kirkenes and Nikel with features of a top-down – rather than the
ordinary bottom-up – type of endeavor (Figenschou, 2011; Haugseth, 2013). The active and
encouraging role of the ministries has also been reflected in the 2010 decision to establish a visa-free
zone for residents living in the vicinity of the border between the Sør-Varanger commune and the
Russian towns of Nikel, Zapolyarny, Petchenga and Korzunovo. The Kirkenes-Nikel constellation
has been further complicated by the fact that the agreement on twinning has not been concluded
between the cities themselves but came into being through a joint declaration issued by the
municipalities of Sør-Varanger on the Norwegian side and that of Pechenga on the Russian one.
Kirkenes and Nikel form the largest entities within their respective municipalities, but their nested
position within the two somewhat broader entities may nonetheless complicate their aim and
pursuance of twinning.
There are thus good reasons to interrogate the unfolding of twinning in the case of Kirkenes-Nikel.
Being an integral part of broader plans for cooperation and cross-border regionalization between
Norway and Russia potentially provides the two northern cities with the position of front-runners.
The option is there to transgress and reach beyond the border and the various binary divisions into
‗we‘ and ‗them‘ that for a considerable period of time have prevented the development of any
interaction, and to make it malleable and part of a border-related space premised on cooperation and
friendly relations. They may transcend the national appropriations that have characterized the
policies pursued in the past. It is, however, also possible that they encounter various obstacles
related to the burden of the past, the somewhat complicated structures in which they have been
embedded and/or various actors resisting a down-grading of the divisive impact of their national
border. For the latter type of reasons it might have been difficult for twinning to take off in various
spheres of economic, social and cultural relations and for closer relations to develop between
Kirkenes and Nikel, providing substance to the notion of city-twinning.
In addition to charting success or failure in various efforts of cooperation, our aim is one of
addressing the way the encounter has unfolded in terms of the narratives employed as well as the
discourses used in grounding the twin-city relationship between Kirkenes and Nikel. This is done in
order to offer additional insight into the quite complex cross-border relationship. The options