The treaty on the delineation of a disputed section of the border in the Varanger fjord area of the Barents Sea was signed in July 2007 and submitted to the Duma by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The previous agreement on the Varanger fjord, signed in 1957, applied to the inner part of the fjord, while the new agreement delimits the outer part.
Responding to a MP's question on whether the new treaty would help resolve sporadic fishing disputes in the area between Russia and Norway, Yuly Kvitsinsky, first deputy head of the Duma's International Affairs Committee, said the treaty does not cover fishing areas.
The agreement could lead to a final settlement on the delineation of the 155,000 sq km Norwegian-Russian disputed zone, considered likely to hold substantial oil and gas deposits. The Varanger fjord area falls outside this zone.
Norway and Russia have been negotiating the delineation of the disputed area since the 1970s.
The Varanger fjord, in the county of Finnmark, is the easternmost fjord in Norway. It is approximately 100 km long.
