Sweden in charge of Barents

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt today took over the chair of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council from Russia’s Sergei Lavrov. Environment and climate change will be on top of the Swedish chairmanship agenda.

Today’s meeting in Murmansk was attended by the foreign ministers of all the four Barents countries, as well as observer representatives from Iceland and the EU Commission. The meeting was held one day after a session in the Barents Regional Council, the regional-level structure in the cooperation.

Environment and climate change will be the main Swedish focus areas in the two-year period, Mr. Bildt said at the press conference. Also economic cooperation and energy efficiency will be priorities.

The Barents Cooperation is developing successfully, Bildt underlined. He still argued that more needs to be done to handle environmental hotspots in the region. Sweden takes over the chair in a period of rapidly growing international focus on the High North.

(Article from BarentsObserver.com)