From RIA Novosti: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend an Arctic Five ministerial meeting on Monday as part of his two-day visit to Canada.

The agenda of his visit also includes a G8 foreign ministers meeting in Gatineau on March 30.

The Arctic Five, which comprises Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway, will meet in Chelsea, north of Ottawa, to discuss continental shelf disputes, climate change, preservation of Arctic eco-systems, and cooperation in the development of Arctic resources.

"Moscow expects the meeting to continue the discussion of Russia’s initiative of broader Arctic cooperation," Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on the eve of Lavrov’s visit to Canada. …

Russia has said it will invest some 1.5 billion rubles ($50 million) in defining the extent of its continental shelf in the Arctic in 2010.  (photo:  Edward Pesov/RIA Novosti)

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