"Although [the EU's] relations with Russia are not as smooth as we'd like them to be, in practice we cooperate a lot with Russia in the Arctic. We hope that the Arctic will remain, as it is today, a territory where there is a low level of political tension and where there is peaceful cooperation between various states," said the EU's Ambassador at Large for the Arctic Michael Mann during a videoconference organized by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

Michael Mann also noted a good level of cooperation on an extremely practical basis between the European Union and Russia, especially in the disposal of nuclear waste from ships and submarines, and stressed that the EU provided international grants to participants from Russia, Canada and the United States for the development and study of the Arctic.

"We have cross-border cooperation on the issue," the ambassador said.

When speaking about Russia's military activities in the Arctic, Michael Mann emphasized that there were different points of view on what Russia was doing in the Arctic: whether it was aggressive or simply defensive measures. He also said there was no need to escalate tensions in the Arctic.