The Arctic Council has not received any proposals to impose legally binding obligations on member states that would ban or limit hydrocarbon exploration, the Russian chairman of the council's senior Arctic officials committee told Sputnik.
"No proposal of the kind has been submitted to or received by the Arctic Council," Nikolai Korchunov, the ambassador-at-large at Russia's foreign ministry, said.
The European Commission said this week that it was working on a multilateral legal obligation not to allow any further hydrocarbon reserve development in the Arctic or buy such hydrocarbons if they were to be produced. Russia called it a blatant attempt to meddle in the affairs of the eight Arctic states. (ANI/Sputnik)
( With inputs from ANI )
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