The treaty is signed

The Conclusion

The treaty was concluded on 9 February 1920 and entered into force on 14 August 1925. By then it had been ratified by the Netherlands, Great Britain, Denmark, the USA, Italy, France, Sweden, Norway and Japan. A large number of states have since acceded to the treaty. Negotiations about Svalbard began in Paris in 1919 on Norwegian initiative as part of the peace settlement after the First World War. Earlier attempts, including from Norway, to change the area's actual status as no man's land (terra nullius) had not succeeded.

Partly because of how Norway upheld its neutrality during the First World War, there was broad agreement among the victorious powers to give Norway sovereignty over the area.

Germany was not represented at the negotiations, but said it supported the treaty.

The revolutionary government in Russia was not recognised by the Western powers and was not invited to take part in Paris either. Norway, which was assigned the task of drawing up the draft text of the agreement, was nevertheless anxious to facilitate Russia's future accession. A provision was therefore included that secured the same rights for Russian subjects as for the subjects of the treaty states until Russia acceded to the treaty (article 10). In 1924 the Soviet government declared that it had no objections to Norway's sovereignty over Svalbard.