OREANDA-NEWS. March 04, 2011. Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, held a meeting with Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, on the margins of the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

The participants paid much attention to the situation in North Africa and the Middle East, and some other regional issues, in particular the situation in Afghanistan.

As far as the BMD is concerned, the Russian side underlined that a prerequisite for establishing practical cooperation was the elaboration of binding guarantees that the relevant US and NATO potential would not be targeted against the strategic interests of the Russian Federation.

The Ministers also discussed a number of topical aspects of the bilateral agenda, including the schedule of forthcoming political contacts at the high and highest levels.

In this context, the sides held an interested exchange of opinions on Russia's accession to the WTO, preparation of documents on transport security, international adoption and strengthening of the legal basis of exhibition exchanges.