Minister Sergei Lavrov met Monday in Moscow with Tom Lantos, the chairman of the U.S. Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs, to discuss Russian-American relations.
"Special attention was paid to the necessity of making them [the relations] stable and independent of any political trends' influence, as well as of removing artificial obstacles, first of all, in the economic sector," the foreign ministry said in a statement following the meeting between two officials.
Lavrov and Lantos discussed proposals to enhance permanent mechanisms of inter-parliamentary cooperation between Russia and the United States.
The ministry also said in the statement that the high-ranking officials exchanged their opinions on key international issues, including cooperation in the development of civilian nuclear energy in compliance with nuclear non-proliferation provisions, the situation in Iraq as well as Iran and Kosovo issues.
