MOSCOW, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said in an interview with RIA Novosti that he hopes the Arctic Sunrise case will be resolved by diplomatic means.

“Well, we discussed it [with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov] at great length… both legal aspects and the court case, but also mutual wish to find a diplomatic solution,” Timmermans said. “We have explored the legal aspects of the case, but we haven’t come to concrete steps forward on the diplomatic solution.”

“But we’ve expressed… our intention of having close contacts in the days and weeks ahead to make sure that we can find the diplomatic solution,” he told RIA Novosti on Saturday.

The Dutch-registered Greenpeace icebreaker, the Arctic Sunrise, was seized by Russian border guards in September. All 30 people on board the vessel were detained by Russian authorities after activists attempted to scale a rig belonging to Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom in protest against drilling in the Arctic.

The Dutch government has taken the Arctic Sunrise case to an international tribunal, demanding Russia release both the ship and its multinational crew, who have all been charged with hooliganism. Russia has refused to participate in the arbitration process.