Russia favors international cooperation in the Arctic but without the military component and is concerned by NATO activity in the region, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.
"The Russian Federation is keeping a close eye on this activity [NATO in the Arctic] because it [Arctic] is a zone of peaceful and economic cooperation," Medvedev said.
The existing economic regulatory mechanisms and international documents are sufficient for developing the Arctic resources, he said.
Medvedev is currently in the northern Russian city of Murmansk where he has been holding talks with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and overseeing the signing of a deal to delimitate the maritime border between Russia and Norway, which has been under dispute for 40 years.
MURMANSK, September 15 (RIA Novosti)
