🇷🇺🇳🇴On October 25, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had talks with Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Norway Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide in Kirkenes.
🔹The talks were held as part of Sergey Lavrov’s participation in the celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of northern Norway by the Red Army from Nazi invaders. This page in history has an everlasting significance for both countries which is testified by King Harald V of Norway, Prime Minister Erna Solberg and other government officials as well as Norwegian MPs attending the anniversary events.
🔹The foreign ministers discussed current bilateral relations, prospects for stepping up trade and economic collaboration in certain industries. They shared opinions on current matters concerning Russian economic and scientific activities on the Svabald Archipelago.
Security issues in the Far North were given a special focus including in the Russia-Norway border areas. It was stressed that NATO’s increased activity in the region, the alliance’s advance to Russia’s borders, regular military preparations, engaging non-NATO countries in such activities are fraught with negative consequences for the stability in the Baltics and in the whole of the Euro-Atlantic. We called on our partners for a dialogue and a pragmatic search for solutions to the existing concerns.
🔹Mutual interest was expressed in the promotion of interaction in regional formats in the Arctic and in the North of Europe – the Arctic Council, Barents Euro Arctic Council where Norway holds the presidency at present, the Council of the Baltic Sea States.
🔹The ministers compared approaches to a number of key topics regarding the international agenda, among them the situation in Ukraine, Syria, Venezuela, in the field of arms control, including that of the future of the INF Treaty.