Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held his first press briefing this year Thursday, highlighting the core of Russia's diplomacy, including relations with the West, the Iranian nuclear program, and the situation in the Mideast.

While summarizing the major events in Russia's foreign policy during 2010, Lavrov announced some prospects for his ministry for 2011.

SECURITY AND SINCERITY: PRINCIPAL CONCERNS

According to Lavrov, cooperation between Russia and its partners in the Euro-Atlantic region would depend on the European anti-missile defense (AMD) project to a large extent.

"Lots of things depend on how the Euro AMD will be going on," he said, noting that the general dynamic in the Euro-Atlantic security was positive.

He expressed hope that Russia-EU international and security committee would start working this year.

The committee was set up under German proposal and supported by Moscow. In November 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who attended the NATO summit in Lisbon, had agreed to explore the possibility of cooperation with NATO in the network of radar bases and interceptor missiles.

Lavrov said that creation of a joint NATO-Russia AMD would be a test for sincerity of NATO's claims about indivisible security.

"Those claims go on to occur but they materialize weakly enough," he said, stressing that creation of the joint AMD must be conducted in a frank way.

Lavrov said that the positive dynamic has been due to a warming of Russia-U.S. relations in the last year, and the fundamental objective of Russia's foreign policy was to keep up the trend.

"We and the United States have more in common than in differences," he said, adding that Russia was ready to broaden the area of common strategic interests with the U.S.

Lavrov pointed out that it was premature to talk about further nuclear arms reduction before the new START treaty would be implemented.

The Russian Parliament, State Duma, will likely consider the ratification bill in a second reading on Jan. 14, while the final reading would likely take place at the end of this month. The U.S. Senate ratified the pact in December.