Russian President Vladimir Putin Will Hold A Meeting With President Of Iceland Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting with President of Iceland Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson on Tuesday, as part of the International Arctic Forum in Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2019) Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting with President of Iceland Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson on Tuesday, as part of the International Arctic Forum in Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg.

The Soviet Union was one of the first countries to recognize Iceland's independence after the dissolution of the Icelandic-Danish union.

Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Iceland were established on October 4, 1943. In December 1955, diplomatic missions in Moscow and Reykjavik were transformed into embassies.

Bilateral relations are built in accordance with the Declaration on the basic principles of relations between the Republic of Iceland and the Russian Federation, which was signed in Moscow on December 19, 1994.

The first ever state visit of then-Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson to Russia in April 2002 was an important milestone in Russian-Icelandic relations. Then he repeatedly came to Russia on official and private visits.

Putin met with Olafur Grimsson three times on the margins of The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue international forum: in Moscow in 2010, in Russia's northern city of Arkhangelsk in 2011, and in the town of Salekhard in the Russian northern Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area in 2013.

Olafur Grimsson with his wife visited the Russian resort city of Sochi on February 5-10, 2014, through Icelandic National Olympic Committee.

Gudni Johannesson paid a working visit to Russia on March 29-31, 2017, to participate in the 4th international forum The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue in Arkhangelsk. He held talks with Putin on March 30.

The Ukrainian crisis has clearly affected Russian-Icelandic relations. Iceland, which is not a member of the European Union, joined all anti-Russian sanctions adopted by the bloc, without exception. Political contacts were frozen on the initiative of Reykjavik.

Russia's retaliatory measures, introduced on August 7, 2014, were extended to Iceland on August 13, 2015.

In 2018, Russia's trade with Iceland increased by more than 20 percent compared to the previous year, amounting to $45.3 million. The Russian exports to Iceland amounted to $15.9 million, which is 10.8 percent more than in 2017. The Russian imports from Iceland totaled $29.4 million, showing an increase of 25.9 percent compared to 2017.

Russia's exports to Iceland include mineral products, machinery, equipment and vehicles, wood, pulp and paper products, metals and products made of them and chemicals.

Russia's imports from Iceland consist mainly of food products and agricultural raw materials, machinery, equipment and vehicles, metals and products made of them, chemicals and other goods.

Despite the fact that the import of Icelandic fish to Russia has been stopped, the Joint Russian-Icelandic Fisheries Commission continues to operate. It deals with issues of allocating quotas for Iceland to fish in the Barents Sea under the 1999 Agreement between Russia, Norway and Iceland. The regular session of the commission was held in Moscow in February 2018.

Russian-Icelandic consultations on trade and economic cooperation are held annually. The last round was held in Moscow in November 2018.

Iceland maintains ties with such Russian regions as Chukotka Autonomous Area, the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Kamchatka Territory, Krasnodar Territory, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area, Murmansk and Kaliningrad regions, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The two countries also maintain cultural contacts. There are the Society of Russian-speaking compatriots in Iceland named Zemlyachestvo, and the Saint Nicholas parish of the Moscow Patriarchate in Reykjavik.

The Russian Cultural Center was established under the auspices of the Saint Nicholas parish in 2013.