TASS Russian News Agency published an article titled, “Norway interested in maintaining cooperation with Russia, says minister”. The article reads in part as follows;
Norway is seeking to maintain good-neighborly relations and practical cooperation with Russia, Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said on Wednesday as she addressed an annual international conference in Kirkenes, a town in the Arctic northeast of the country located 9 km away from the Norwegian-Russian border.
Cooperation between the two countries should develop in the interests of the rank-and-file people, she said, stressing the importance of keeping up practical cooperation with Russia and good-neighborliness traditions at a fair level.
Neighbors have a duty to maintain dialogue in the process of discussing the contradictions that may spring up between them and prevent the situations where politics might have a bearing on the rank-and-file Norwegians and Russians or on the long-time traditions of grassroots diplomacy, Dr. Soreide said.
