Foreign Ministers to Kirkenes
Carl Bildt and Jonas Gahr Støre will visit the Barents Secretariat’s in Kirkenes before traveling through the border areas of Norway and Russia on their way to Murmansk on Wednesday.
The Swedish and Norwegian Foreign Ministers will have a meeting with both the International and Norwegian Barents Secretariats in Kirkenes, in addition to talks with representatives of the business in the Norwegian border region to Russia, reports the website of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sweden will at Thursday’s Barents Council meeting in Murmansk take over the chairmanship of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council for the coming two years, reports the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For the same period, the County of Troms (Norway) will chair the Barents Regional Council for the same period.
On October 15th, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and other high representatives of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and the European Commission will meet to summarize and discuss the forthcomings of the cooperation between the members of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council.
The main themes of the Session of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council are sustainable development, environment protection, climate change and indigenous peoples.
Barents cooperation is, above all, cross-border cooperation between Northern regions; it relies on local skills, traditions and enthusiasm. Close cooperation is carried out between the region and governments.
The Barents Euro-Arctic Council was established in 1993 at the initiative of Norway. Its members are all the Nordic countries, Russia and the European Commission.
