Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on 3 February held talks in Moscow with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store in Moscow, noting the dynamic evolution of good-neighborly Russian-Norwegian relations, and the mutual striving for the further advancement of intensive political dialogue and practical cooperation. Lavrov said the unification of measures for regulating of fish catches between Russia and Norway has considerably reduced the number of incidents that take place during fishing. We praise an active work carried out by the joint commission for fishing. The commission has made a technical, but a very important decision to establish a uniform minimal size of scrape-bottom fish trawlers’ meshes. It was an important step towards the unification of measures of regulating fish catches that has already yielded results. The number of incidents linked to different standards used in Russia and Norway has considerably dropped, Lavrov said. Interaction in the field of fishing is a successful example of preserving the biological resources and maintaining balance in nature. We also actively cooperate in the field of energy, high technologies, scientific studies and believe that this cooperation is an important contribution to settlement of tasks of the modernization of the Russian economy and its transfer to the course of innovational development, the Russian minister said. The ministers thoroughly discussed the course of the preparation of the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Norway, scheduled for the spring of this year. The two parties examined the tasks in developing economic and trade ties, underlined the importance of minimizing the negative effects of the world financial and economic crisis for them, expressed a keen interest in deepening cooperation in such growth areas as high technology and innovation and discussed the possibilities of partnership in modernizing the Russian economy. An important role in this work is played by the Russian-Norwegian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Industrial and Scientific-Technical Cooperation, the next session of which will be held in Moscow. During the talks they also discussed themes pertaining to the reinforcement of European security in the context of the Russian initiative for a European Security Treaty; the development of Russia-NATO relations and elaboration of a new strategic concept of the alliance; and interaction with international economic structures (WTO and EFTA). An exchange of views took place on a number of regional problems, including Middle East settlement, the situation in Afghanistan and around the Iranian nuclear program.