OREANDA-NEWS. On November 17-18 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, made a working visit to Portugal at the invitation of Luis Amado, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs of Portugal.

The head of the Russian foreign affairs agency met with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates as well as with his counterpart Amado.

In discussing the prospects for the development of bilateral ties, the ministers emphasized the disposition of the leaderships of both countries toward further expansion of cooperation in all areas of mutual interest. Simultaneously they examined the progress made in contacts between different agencies of the two countries, and adopted a Consultation Plan between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Portugal for the year 2009.

Considerable attention in the talks was paid to solving the task of improving Russian-Portuguese cooperation in the trade and economic area. The importance was noted of implementing large-scale joint projects in the investment sphere and measures were outlined to help strengthen ties between the business circles and entrepreneurial structures of the two countries. The Mixed Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Industrial and Technical Cooperation must play a noticeable role in reinvigorating bilateral ties; its next meeting will take place in spring 2009.

The focus of the discussion of international problems was questions of formation of a new European security architecture in the light of the initiative of President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev for crafting the respective treaty, as well as the situation in the world financial sphere. The disposition to enhance the strategic partnership in relations between Russia and the European Union was reaffirmed, particularly with regard for the outcome of the Russia-EU Summit recently held in France.

An exchange of views also took place on other international problems, including the situation in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and Middle East settlement, and the Iranian nuclear program. It was stated that on many issues the two countries’ approaches to the search for a solution of acute problems are consonant or coincide.