Meeting with the press after talks with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in Kaliningrad on Monday, Sergei Lavrov underlined that “there are no problems left on Russian-Norwegian bilateral agenda”. He admitted however that there are “a big number of practical questions”, which need to be solved, a transcript from the meeting reads.
Among them is the implementation of the Treaty concerning Maritime Delimitation and Cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean, signed in Murmansk on 15 September 2010, an issue which was high on the agenda in the Kaliningrad meeting. The Russian State Duma will complete the ratification process of the agreement in the course of March, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov maintains.
Read also: Ratification hearings in mid-March
The two foreign ministers also discussed the introduction of local visa-free zones in border areas. Lavrov confirms that the EU already has approved that the whole Kaliningrad Oblast will be included in a local border traffic agreement and that negotiations are now held on how to include also adjacent Polish and Lithuanian areas. The Schengen Treaty allows for the establishment of local visa-free zones only in a 30-50 km radius from the border.
Read also: Kaliningrad gets visa-free traveling
Norway was the first country to sign an agreement on local border traffic with Russia. The agreement signed in November 2010 will eventually open for visa-free traveling between the border municipalities of Sør-Varanger (Norway) and Pechenga (Russia).
Read also: First opening in the Schengen-regime with Russia
On the meeting agenda was also Norway’s current chairmanship period in the Council of Baltic Sea States, as well as a Partnership of Modernization programme adopted by a bilateral commission last year. In addition, the two minister “thoroughly discussed regional cooperation in the Arctic region”, a press release from the Russian Foreign Ministry reads.
Minister Støre during the visit also met with regional Governor Nikolai Tsukanov. Both sides agree to step up cooperation between the region and Norway, the Kaliningrad administration informs
The two foreign ministers are close partners on the international arena. This week’s meeting in Kaliningrad is the sixth the last year. Lavrov himself admits that Støre is one of his most frequent foreign negotiating partners.
