MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th February, 2021) Russia and the European Union can successfully develop cooperation in a number of areas, including on climate issues, despite the existing disagreements, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Monday, following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the city of St. Petersburg.
"In the current situation, we have a number of issues, on which opportunities for cooperation are reviewed. We can think, for example, about combating climate change, improving the state of the environment ... These are the issues that we must address anyway," Haavisto said at a joint press conference.
According to the Finnish minister, such a cooperation meets the interests of the European Union, as well as�Russia and Finland.
The� top diplomat added that he discussed other issues of regional cooperation with Russian counterpart, including Russia's chairmanship in the Arctic Council starting from May.
Last week, Lavrov said that Moscow had no troubles cutting� ties with Brussels altogether if the latter resorted to new sanctions threatening the Russian economy over the situation around opposition activist Alexey Navalny.
