ANCHORAGE, (Sputnik), Liudmila Chernova – Officials from eight Arctic countries, including Russia, gathered at the conference held on August 30-31 to discuss challenges related to climate change and cooperation in the ecologically and geopolitically sensitive region.
“Of course the Arctic issues demand great strategic insight and cooperation between all the countries. Depoliticized, focused on specific cases [cooperation],” Sergey Kislyak said.
The ambassador said that Russia is implementing a lot of projects in the Arctic to protect the environment and introduce new technologies to monitor the situation in the region, but Moscow would like to see the other countries in the region making similar efforts.
“The Arctic is the area where we all are in the same boat. Any negative changes in the Arctic would have the same negative impact on [Russia] as on Alaska, Canada or Norway,” the ambassador warned.
With ice shelves in the Arctic receding by 65 percent over the past four decades, on the one hand opening up access to natural resources while at the same time causing environmental concern, the region has become the subject of renewed interest.
