Russia's Military Activity in Arctic Fully Transparent – Official

The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that Moscow's military activity in the Arctic is absolutely transparent and that the militarization of the region is out of the question.

Russia's military activity in the Arctic Region is fully transparent, according to Vladimir Barbin, the Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large and Russia's senior delegate to the Arctic Council.

"In the Arctic, we are dealing with the same issues that our regional partners do. Our entire military activity in the Arctic is absolutely open," Barbin told a press conference at the International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya on Monday.

"The militarization of the Arctic is out of the question, and our partners in the region know this perfectly well," Barbin said, adding that information about Russia's military activity in the Arctic was published back in 2013.

Earlier, he described the Arctic Region as a ground to help develop dialogue and resolve a whole array of regional challenges, which he said are related to technology and climate change rather than the military sector.

Bolstering technological, scientific and environmental cooperation will be high on the agenda of the Arctic Council's ministerial meeting, due to be held in the Canadian city of Iqaluit on April 24-25.