MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called on the countries of the Barents Sea region to work out a mechanism of mutual recognition of coronavirus vaccination certificates.

"An absolute priority for us is to ensure post-pandemic social-economic recovery. It would be expedients, for instance, to look at working out a mechanism of mutual recognition of vaccination certificates," he said in an interview with the International Barents Secretariat when asked which steps could be taken to mitigate the pandemic’s negative impacts on cross-border cooperation in the Barents Sea region.

He welcomed the Murmansk region’s initiative to look at joint measures of combating the pandemic as important and timely in the regional context. The initiative materialized in four videoconferences, the minister recalled.

"During this difficult international situation, regional cooperation formats are a major channel for dialogue with our North European partners, a kind of safety net keeping our relations at a certain level, despite the gaps. Apart from that, regular political dialogue is maintained within the Barents Euro-Arctic Council. <…> Such regular coordination of positions is still quite topical," he stressed.