OREANDA-NEWS. July 19, 2011. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov held talks with German Minister of Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle on July 18 within the framework of the thirteenth round of Russian-German Summit-level Interstate Consultations with the participation of government members from the two countries, which is being held in Hannover under the chairmanship of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel.

During their exchange of views they took stock of the cooperation at the level of the foreign affairs agencies in carrying out the policy of deepening the strategic partnership between the two countries, and examined topical issues on the international and European agenda. The two parties reaffirmed the mindset to continue foreign office support of the priority projects of bilateral cooperation, and the work on further refinement of the legal framework of relations.

In the context of the German Presidency of the UN Security Council in July, Lavrov and Westerwelle discussed practical matters of collaboration in New York on major items of the current agenda. They paid special attention to the developments in Libya and in the Middle East and North Africa region as a whole. The parties stressed the importance of continuing vigorous efforts of the Middle East Quartet to relaunch Palestinian-Israeli talks.

Traditionally the focus of attention was the entire spectrum of Russia-EU relations and the tasks in boosting interaction in questions of foreign policy and security.

As applied to Russia-NATO relations, the ministers singled out the task of the joint construction with Russia of a missile defense system in Europe in the interests of creating a common space of security and partnership in the Euro-Atlantic area. They agreed to exert further efforts to promote this project in the Russia-NATO Council.

Lavrov and Westerwelle on July 19, 2011 signed a Joint Statement on Support of the Establishment of the German House of Science and Innovation in Moscow.