Norway to tap oil fund to buy Shetland Islands
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The Local -Norwegian News in English] April 1, 2016
Norway will tap into its sovereign wealth fund to purchase the Shetland Islands from the UK, both countries announced on Friday.
Neither side was willing to divulge the financial details of the plan, which will see the archipelago return to its Viking roots.
“In our mind, this deal was a no-brainer. Shetland still has strong ties to Norway and with our fertility rate at an all-time low, we could certainly use the population boost,” Norway’s newly-appointed minister of global expansion, Erik Gundersen, said in a statement.
Shetland is actually closer to Norway than it is to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh and was under Norwegian control from the 9th century until it was transferred to the Scottish King James III in 1472.
As part of the deal, the roughly 23,000 inhabitants of the island will be given the option to become Norwegian citizens or to relocate to mainland Scotland within 180 days...
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