Upon arrival in Tromsø on Monday, Sergey Lavrov, along with his Norwegian counterpart, took part in the ceremony of laying flowers at the memorial to Soviet soldiers.
After the talks, Sergey Lavrov and Anniken Huitfeldt held a joint press conference.
Russia-NATO relations cannot be called catastrophic because there are no such relations at all.
"Relations between Russia and NATO cannot be called catastrophic because only what really exists can be called catastrophic," Lavrov said. "We have no relations with NATO."
Also, Moscow Sergey Lavrov said that suggests Russian and Norwegian defense ministries launch high-level dialogue.
"We have relations with Norway, including in the sphere of security. And we would like to establish high-level relations between the defense ministries, along with regular security consultations," he said when asked whether Moscow and Oslo plan to invigorate bilateral contacts between the defense ministries amid the severance of Russia-NATO relations.
On October 6, NATO announced the reduction of the Russian mission from 20 to 10 people and revoked the accreditation of eight diplomats. Two more open vacancies were eliminated. The Alliance said the Russian diplomats are to leave Brussels before the end of this month.
On October 18, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia was suspending its permanent mission to NATO from November 1. Apart from that, Russia is suspending the NATO Information Office in Moscow and the NATO Military Liaison Mission Moscow starting on November 1.
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