"We are committed to advancing our cooperation and are convinced that our negotiations today will help that," Sergei Lavrov said, opening a meeting with his Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Gahr Store.
Lavrov said this was the fourth meeting so far this year, the regularity of discussions pointing to the growing intensity of bilateral contacts.
He said that Russia and Norway are determined to resolve economic disputes to mutually beneficial ends, referring, in particular, to fishing, the delimitation of economic zones, and the continental shelf in the Barents Sea.
Jonas Gahr Store said outstanding issues over the use of the Arctic shelf should be resolved on the basis of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, adding that it was vital for all coastal states to follow UN rules and regulations.
The Norwegian foreign minister also commented on the development of the Arctic shelf and claims filed by some countries to the Lomonosov Ridge, saying that although "the UN convention lays down clear-cut guidelines on the external boundaries of the continental shelf," so far Russia and Norway were the only countries to present "relevant data to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf."
The Lomonosov Ridge is part of an Arctic territory that Russia has claimed since 2001, on the grounds that the underwater mountain chain and the Mendeleyev Ridge are a continuation of its territorial shelf. In August, two Russian mini-submarines made a symbolic eight-hour dive beneath the North Pole to bolster the country's claim to the territory, planting a titanium flag on the seabed.
The area is believed to contain vast oil and gas reserves, as well as other mineral riches likely to become accessible in future decades as a result of man-made global warming.
Under international law, the five Arctic Circle countries - the U.S., Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia - each have a 322-kilometer (200-mile) economic zone in the Arctic Ocean.
