Norway so nice that it wants to give Finland a mountain for birthday

by Siobhán O’Grady

While U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump threatens to build walls to separate the United States from its neighbours, the famously friendly Nordic countries are contemplating what gifts to give one another for important milestones.

Up next? Finland’s 100th birthday. And neighbouring 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 neighbour 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.

https://foreignpolicy.com