TROMSO /Norway/, October 26. /TASS/. Participants of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) adopted the updated 2025 Action Plan on Climate Change, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday.

"The Action Plan on Climate Change has been approved. The Plan covers the period from this year to 2025. Its goal is to take climate aspects in all BEAC projecting activities into account. I consider it very, very important," the Minister said in the wake of the 18th BEAC Ministerial session meeting. 

The top diplomat thanked Norway for its work as the president of the Council, adding that the current ministerial session brought a number of very important decisions. In particular, he noted that the sides signed a joint declaration outlining the key directions for further joint work in various fields, including economy, healthcare, education, climate and youth policy.

"We also made a decision, which was in the making for several years, about the establishment of the Barents Financial Mechanism; it implies the funding of projects within the framework of our Barents Council working groups, first of all," the Minister said.

Lavrov also noted that the Barents Regional Council presidency shifted from Sweden’s Vaesterbotten County to Russia’s Nenets Autonomous Region, making Governor Yuri Bezdudny a president of this regional body for 2022-2023.

"We in the Russian government view this as a stage of preparation for our presidency in the BEAC, which we will receive after our Finnish neighbors," Lavrov explained.

"I believe that the session was very, very useful and it once again proved that, when we engage in practical business, we can indeed achieve results. We are not being distracted by various ideological disagreements and geopolitical games," the top diplomat noted.

The BEAC has been established in 1993 as a regional cooperation forum.