Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich held a meeting of the Government Commission on Russian Presence on the Spitsbergen (Svalbard) Archipelago, the press service of the Russian Government has reported.

The meeting focused on the key areas of promoting and strengthening Russia's presence on the archipelago and on establishing a Russian Arctic research expedition on Spitsbergen and providing it with everything necessary for operation.

In addition, the commission approved an action plan for implementing a strategy for Russia's presence on the archipelago until 2020 and a set of measures to uphold the legitimate rights and interests of Russia and Russian nationals and organizations on Spitsbergen for the period of 2016 until 2020.