Following the close of the Russia-European Union summit, the participants were joined by the prime ministers of Norway and Iceland, Jens Stoltenberg and Geir Haarde.
The four-party talks were devoted to launching the Northern Dimension programme in renewed form.
The meeting approved the Northern Dimension programme’s basic documents – the framework agreement and political declaration – which will come into force as of January 1, 2007.
The framework agreement, in particular, states that the Northern Dimension will become a joint programme between Russia, the EU, Norway and Iceland.
The participants in the four-party talks declared that the Northern Dimension programme aims to improve conditions for the movement of people and goods across borders and promote economic cooperation and contacts between peoples.
The agreement notes that the Northern Dimension programme covers a huge geographical area stretching from the subtropical regions of Europe through to the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, and from north-western Russia in the east across to Iceland and Greenland in the west.
The participants in the four-party talks agreed that the foreign ministers of the Northern Dimension countries would hold a meeting once every two years, and a working group would be established comprising representatives of Russia, the EU, Iceland and Norway.
A political declaration, also adopted at the meeting, notes that the Northern Dimension will become the regional incarnation of implementation of the roadmaps for the four common spaces between Russia and the European Union. In this particular case, Iceland and Norway will also take full part in implementing these roadmaps at regional level.
The declaration states that joint financing of approved projects is one of the basic principles of the Northern Dimension.
The participants in the Northern Dimension also spoke in favour of using the programme as a framework within which to develop a partnership in the area of transport and logistics and expand cooperation in renewable energy sources and energy conservation, including by involving the international financial institutions in this work.