YAKUTSK, March 22. /TASS/. BRICS and SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) member states take interest in cooperation in the Arctic region, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-At-Large, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials of the Arctic Council Nikolay Korchunov said on Wednesday.
"More and more countries take interest in the work in the Arctic region. We see the interest of both Central Asian countries and member states of BRCIS, SCO and other integrations," he said at a plenary session of the conference devoted to issues of climate change and permafrost thaw.
"In this respect the launch of the initiative suggesting interaction and cooperation through existing poles, the Arctic, Antarctic and highland Asia, with large permafrost masses focused, seems interesting, and we hope that this initiative will give a boost to understanding of the processes that our planet’s climate system faces," Korchunov added.
The Arctic agenda is becoming more global, he noted. "The Arctic is opening, though we would like this opening to occur on the principles of respect and maintenance of the vulnerable Arctic environment, careful attitude to peoples that live there, and to trigger sustainable development, rely on the concept excluding the accumulation of environmental damage," Korchunov concluded.