OREANDA-NEWS  Russia will do everything necessary to preserve peace, stability and socio-economic development in the Arctic. This is stated in the greeting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the participants of the scientific and practical conference on climate change and permafrost melting, posted on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

"A complex of scientific, economic and political factors leads to a constant increase in the attention of the international community to the Arctic region. We see our task in doing everything necessary to preserve peace and stability, increase environmental sustainability, and ensure favorable conditions for the socio-economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation," he said.

The Minister noted that one of the ways to achieve this goal is to establish mutually beneficial international cooperation in the interests of the development of the Far North with a balanced combination of social, economic and environmental aspects. "This is one of the priorities of the Russian chairmanship of the Arctic Council, which ends in May this year," Lavrov stressed.

The Russian Foreign Minister drew attention to the fact that the changing climate is one of the most serious challenges of our time. "The issue under consideration is of particular relevance for high latitudes. It is significant that, according to available estimates, the growth rate of air temperature in the Arctic exceeds the global average by more than two times," he said. - As a result of permafrost melting, the risks for infrastructure facilities created in the region are increasing. At the same time, warming facilitates navigation along the northern river and ocean routes, expanding the possibilities of cargo delivery to hard-to-reach areas of the Far North."