Russia, Sweden Sign Deal on Joint Arctic projects

Russian presidential advisor Anton Kobyakov and Swedish Ambassador to Russia Malena Mard discussed this week’s aspects of Russian-Swedish cooperation at a meeting in Moscow, where they agreed on a number of joint projects, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported.

The key areas for cooperation will include interaction in regional multilateral organizations (the Council of the Baltic Sea States, Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Arctic Council, and the Northern Dimension and its partnerships). They will work on tightening up security and stability in the Baltics, and are also planning to continue cooperating on environmental issues.

The Swedish ambassador noted at the meeting that she was interested in attending the Arctic — Territory of Dialogue International Arctic Forum, which is being held in Russia in 2021. The forum is held in Russia once every two years. Its business agenda includes discussions of important issues like Arctic development with new technologies, the evolution of human resources in the Arctic environment, economic growth of the Arctic zone, rational exploitation of resources and sustainable development in the Arctic.

“I will immediately talk to my colleagues about it in Stockholm. It’s very important for Sweden to promote cooperation with other countries when it comes to the Arctic area. The participation of the Swedish delegation, headed by Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, in the International Arctic Forum in 2019 showed how high these Arctic issues are on the Swedish agenda,” Ambassador Mard said.

In addition, she assured the Russian side that she would talk to Swedish business circles and officials about other Roscongress Foundation activities — the Eastern Economic Forum and Russian Energy Week — scheduled in Vladivostok and Moscow, respectively, for September and October 2020.

During the meeting, they also discussed the two countries’ investment cooperation, the evolution of the Russian-Swedish business dialogue, participation in international activities and exchanged ideas on new collective projects.