Russian Foreign Minister to visit oil platform in North Sea

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during his visit to Norway on June 2-3, will visit an oil platform on the shelf of the North Sea, where he will fly to on board a helicopter, RIA Novosti was told by Oyvind Nordsletten, Norway's ambassador in Moscow.

Russian foreign ministry official spokesman Alexander Yakovenko confirmed this information to RIA Novosti, adding that Lavrov will also familiarize himself with the activity of Norway's largest concerns Hydro (oil production) and Telenor (telecommunications).

Yakovenko said that during the visit special attention will be paid to issues of Russo-Norwegian trade-economic and investment cooperation.

The agenda includes discussion of possibilities for further increase of trade turnover between the two countries, which hit a record-high level of $1.2 billion in 2003, Yakovenko said.

Moscow also plans to discuss in Oslo ways to boost the volume of Norwegian investments in the Russian economy, the diplomat added.

In his words, it is expected that the talks will touch upon a number of urgent problems of bilateral relations, in particular, delimitation of sea spaces in the Barents Sea.

The sides will consider bilateral cooperation in the environment protection sphere. Here, Moscow and Oslo have common interests in ensuring the nuclear and radiation security in the North, and realizing the Agreement on the Multilateral Nuclear-Ecological Program in the Russian Federation, said Yakovenko.

Norway has allocated 10 million euros to dispose of two nuclear submarines decommissioned from Russia's Northern Fleet. Now the Norwegian side is considering the issue of additional investment in this project.