First US-Russia meeting ahead of Biden-Putin summit

REYKJAVIK: The US and Russian foreign ministers are meeting in Iceland on Wednesday to gauge the enormous gulf between the rival powers and confirm a summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin.

Statements preceding the face-to-face talks on the sidelines of the Arctic Council meeting in Iceland do not bode well for the de-escalation of tensions that the two say they want, with relations at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed to want to make the Arctic -- a new geopolitical issue at the heart of the regional meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Reykjavik -- a laboratory for cooperation focused on common challenges such as the fight against global warming.

But his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov issued a strongly worded warning.

"It has been absolutely clear for everyone for a long time that this is our territory, this is our land," Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow on Monday.

The Russian foreign minister at the same time accused Norway of "trying to justify the need for NATO to come into the Arctic."

He insisted Russian military activity in the region is "absolutely legal."

Mikaa Mered, a professor at French university Sciences Po and a specialist on the Arctic, said that Russians "always do this sort of posturing before the ministerial summit, but that doesn't prevent the Council from continuing its work on its traditional consensus issues".

The Russian warning inevitably drew a response from Blinken, who on Tuesday stressed Washington wanted to "avoid a militarisation" of the Arctic.

"We have concerns about some of the increased military activities in the Arctic. That increases the dangers or prospects of accidents," Blinken said, adding that it undermined "the shared goal of a peaceful and sustainable future for the region".