MOSCOW, Feb 14, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
discussed climate change with US envoy John Kerry and the two agreed to
cooperate further within the Arctic Council, the Russian foreign ministry
said.
“During the conversation, questions were raised about the implementation of
the Paris climate accord,” the ministry said in a statement released late
Saturday.
Lavrov told Kerry, a former secretary of state who is now the US climate
envoy, that he “welcomed” the decision by new US President Joe Biden to
rejoin the landmark Paris agreement on curbing global emissions of greenhouse
gases.
Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump had pulled out of the 2015 accord.
The two men also “underlined the need for as wide a cooperation as
possible” in the area of the environment and agreed to “develop cooperation”
within the Arctic Council, a high-level intergovernmental forum that
addresses issues such as sustainable development and environmental protection
in the Arctic region.
The telephone conversation came at a time when already strained relations
between Russia and the West have been further exacerbated by the arrest and
imprisonment of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and Moscow’s
merciless crackdown on ensuing protests.
Earlier this month, Biden said the United States would no longer be
“rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions” and demanded
Navalny’s release.