At the beginning of the meeting with Ankie Broekers-Knol, the Chairman of the State Duma noted that this is the first fully featured visit of the delegation of the Parliament of the Netherlands to Russia. “But we certainly hope that it will not be the last,” he said. “We hope that this will give impetus to our relations, will develop the parliamentary dimension of our contacts and, of course, we will understand each other better,” said Viacheslav Volodin
Vyacheslav Victorovich
The Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the eighth convocation. Elected in single mandate constituency № 163 (Saratov constituency - Saratov Oblast)
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He noted that the relations between the two countries are far from ideal, but “I think that today’s meeting should resolve a lot of issues, especially when we talk about contacts at the inter-parliamentary level, this is a meeting and dialogue of representatives of peoples”.
“Peoples should always have friendly relations, build up relationships, and politicians should do everything to create such conditions and opportunities,” the Chairman of the State Duma said.
Ankie Broekers-Knol thanked for organizing the meeting. She said it is her first visit to Russia. In her opinion, “the city [Moscow] is even more colorful than I saw on postcards”.
She also said that cooperation between the Netherlands and Russia has been developing for more than 400 years. “We must not forget the enormous contribution of Soviet citizens [to the victory over fascism] in World War II, thanks to whom the Netherlands, among other countries, was liberated. We are very grateful,” she stressed. Ankie Broekers-Knol also thanked for the opportunity to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. “For the development of bilateral relations, we should not forget historical ties that unite us,” said the Chairwoman of the First Chamber of the States General of the Netherlands.
She mentioned the catastrophe that occurred with the MH 17 aircraft, stating that “it is extremely important for all parties to be open and to conduct an efficient investigation of what happened”.
“When accusations against Russia are made, but nobody listens to our point of view, nobody tries to conduct a dialogue, it just proves that people are afraid of something, or these accusations are groundless and are intended to form an image of the enemy. It would be right for politicians to understand in whose interests it is. Because the same charges are expressed in connection with the case of the Skripals. But Russia, as well as in the situation with the Boeing [MH17], is not allowed to join an investigation, is not granted an access to materials that could shed light,” said Viacheslav Volodin.
In his opinion, to build up constructive relations between states, “it is necessary to promote completely different approaches to building relations”.
“They definitely must be based on the principles of mutual understanding, friendship, trust and the absence of double standards and non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states,” he stressed.
In her turn, Ankie Broekers-Knol said that the delegation of the Second Chamber of Parliament plans to visit Russia in October. She believes that the current visit of the delegation of the First Chamber and the planned visit of the delegation of the Second Chamber will promote the establishment of mutual understanding between the parliamentarians of the two countries.
“It may not be possible to solve all the difficulties overnight,” she noted. But, according to Ankie Broekers-Knol, this will be achieved step by step.
