OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2009. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, on September 8 held talks with Miroslav Lajcak, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic, who is in Moscow on a working visit.

The heads of the foreign affairs agencies discussed topical issues in bilateral relations and collated a long-range schedule of top and high level political contacts. They reiterated that the further development of friendly relations and mutually beneficial pragmatic cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Slovak Republic is a reciprocal priority of the two countries and an important factor in European life, and expressed the readiness to further enhance the intensity of political dialogue, with emphasis on content richness and impact.

In discussing historical problems the Ministers reconfirmed their shared view on the inadmissibility of falsification of history and attempts to rehabilitate Nazism. People in Slovakia, which recently celebrated the 65th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising, sacredly revere the memory of the Soviet soldiers who died for the country's liberation from fascism.

The positive dynamics of bilateral economic and trade ties, characterized by the growth of trade, the deepening of cooperation and the extension of joint effort to new areas, was noted and the important role of the bilateral Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation, the next meeting of which is due to be held in Moscow this upcoming October, was underlined in this context.

An exchange of views took place on a wide array of international issues. The range of Russia-EU and Russia-NATO relations was discussed in detail, along with topical issues in OSCE activity, the situation surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, the state of affairs in the Middle East, the Balkans, Afghanistan and some other topics.