Committee for culture of Barents Sea region marks tenth anniversary

The committee for culture of countries of the Barents Sea and Euroarctic Region held a visiting meeting in the border city of Kostomuksha (Karelia) to mark its tenth anniversary.

The committee includes the heads of cultural departments of the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk Regions, the Republic of Karelia, the Nenets National Automonous District, and representatives of two territories each from Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Tatyana Kalashnik, Minister of Culture of Karelia, said that the meeting participants summed up the results of their cooperation and discussed future plans.

The Ministers of Culture of Russia, Sweden, Finland and Norway meet once every four years.

The next such meeting will be held on September 9-10 in the Finnish town of Oulu. As part of preparations for it the participants in the meeting of the committee discussed the draft communique on the results of the past four years and the combined report, and mapped out plans for 2002-2006.