Lavrov's Participation In Arctic Council Meeting On May 19-20 Being Worked Out - Zakharova

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published April 15, 2021 | 08:47 PM

The participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council on May 19-20 in Reykjavik is being worked out, it is planned, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th April, 2021) The participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council on May 19-20 in Reykjavik is being worked out, it is planned, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"We proceed from the fact that at this stage it [participation] should be in-person, and it is planned that the delegation [of Russia] will be headed by the foreign minister. At this stage, this issue is being worked out. We will definitely inform you about it as soon as an appropriate decision is made," Zakharova said at a briefing.

The Arctic Council was established in 1996 in accordance with the Ottawa Declaration and is a high-level intergovernmental forum that promotes cooperation in the region, especially in the field of environmental protection.

The council includes Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Iceland, Canada, Norway, Russia, the United States Finland and Sweden.

Earlier, the Kommersant newspaper reported that Lavrov's meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would be possible on the sidelines of the event. The Ministerial Council meeting is scheduled for May 19, within its framework, the two-year chairmanship in the Arctic Council will pass from Iceland to Russia.

The issue of preparing a bilateral meeting between Lavrov and Blinken on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council is not being worked out, but it is not ruled out, the Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic cooperation, Nikolay Korchunov, told Sputnik earlier.