Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday spoke with US climate envoy John Kerry and said that the two countries have shared interest in combatting climate change, Russia said in a statement.

“The climate problem is one of the areas where Russia and the United States have common interests and similar approaches,” Putin said in a phone call with Kerry who is visiting Moscow, the Kremlin said in its statement.

The Russian President told the former secretary of state that Moscow was focused on achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. Putin also said that Russia attaches great importance to climate change and advocated de-politicising dialogue on the issue.

The US State Department also gave a similar description saying that Putin and Kerry underscored how important it was for the US and Russia to work together on a range of climate change issues.

Kerry pointed to Russia’s role in addressing climate change in the Arctic Council and efforts to end emissions fom coal, a State Department statement said.

For years, Putin questioned man-made global warming and said that Russia stood to benefit from it. But in the last few months, he has publicly stated that climate change is not just a boon to Russia.

At his annual state of the nation address in April, Putin said Russia must adapt to climate change and called on the country to create an industry for utilising carbon emissions.

Climate change is one of the few areas in which the United States and the European Union have said they are ready to engage with Russia amid high tensions over a range of issues, including Ukraine, cyber-attacks and Moscow’s human rights record.