"Cooperation with the Arctic states, including within the Arctic Council, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council is one of our priorities," Nuritdin Inamov,  Head of the Department for International Collaboration of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said. He made this statement following a meeting of representatives of the ministry, the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) and the Arctic Council Project Support Instrument (PSI). The statement was included in a news release from the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Mr Inamov also stressed that the ministry was willing to expand mutually advantageous environmental cooperation with parties and business communities from outside the region in question — specifically, with NEFCO, as part of the PSI and the St. Petersburg Initiative in the Baltics.

At the meeting, the participants concluded that cooperation among the Arctic countries within the PSI is quite substantial. According to the news release, the first pilot projects carried out in Russia — Valdai and Tundra — targeting soot pollution from power generating plants in the Republic of Karelia and the Murmansk Region, are successfully underway.

Moreover, the meeting covered a range of provisional projects that are planned for implementation in Russia with funding from the Arctic Council Project Support Instrument.