Finland to Continue Arctic Cooperation With Russia in Framework of Sanctions

Helsinki will cooperate with Moscow on Arctic development within the framework of anti-Russia sanctions, the Finnish ambassador to Russia told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Finland will continue its joint work with Russia in the Arctic region within the framework of the restrictions imposed by the West against Moscow, Finnish Ambassador to Russia Mikko Hautala told Sputnik on Thursday.

"We will work within the framework of the sanctions but there are of course sectors of cooperation unaffected by sanctions," Hautala said on the sidelines of the conference on the international cooperation in the Arctic in Moscow, commenting on the impact of the sanctions regime on the Finnish-Russian ties.

He specified that there was a whole range of areas of cooperation between the two countries in the Arctic.

"We have close cooperation on environment protection, meteorology, usage of economic potential of the region, there is cooperation already and we will continue that," Hautala said.

The two-day conference "International Cooperation in the Arctic: New Challenges and Vectors of Development" kicked off on Wednesday in the Russian capital with expert sessions devoted to the 20th anniversary of the eight-member Arctic Council.

Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden are members of the Council.