New formats
proved to be productive
During the meeting, Viacheslav Volodin stressed that “over the past few years we have
managed to create new formats that allow us developing relations more actively,
and, most importantly, they create a substantive platform for discussing issues
that are pending solutions.”
According
to him, first format is the Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries'
Parliaments, established by the State Duma and the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. This year the Meeting will be held for the fourth time in the capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan.
“The number
of people willing to take part in the meeting is growing every year, and we
hope that this year even more of our colleagues from all countries representing
a vast territory of Europe and Asia will come to Kazakhstan to discuss issues
of interregional cooperation, economic development, countering terrorism,
threats to security as all this will be discussed within the framework of this
format, which was once initiated by our parliaments and which received great
support and is currently under dynamic development,“ said Viacheslav
Volodin.
The Chairman of the State Duma believes that another important format of inter-parliamentary cooperation between the two states is the Inter-Parliamentary Commission on Cooperation between the State Duma and the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea.
“Within the framework of the High-Level Inter-Parliamentary Commission, we will be able to discuss the development of relations between our countries in the sphere of economy and education, the development of humanitarian ties and culture. These
are all new formats that have appeared over the past few years,” he said.
According
to Viacheslav Volodin, “the formats of the parliamentary dimension are
sufficiently developed, and it was difficult to find something new. But we
managed to find formats and solutions that allow us discussing issues and, most
importantly, create conditions for a more dynamic building of relations between
our countries. ”
The Chairman of the State Duma also stressed that Russia and the Republic of Korea
”are united by a friendship built on trust, the absence of double
standards, and the endeavor for our countries to flourish.“ According to him, this is a good basis for the development of relations between the two
countries in the future.
During the bilateral meeting, Viacheslav Volodin invited Chairman of the National Assembly
of the Republic of Korea Moon Hee-sang and the delegation of the Korean parliament
to take part in the International Forum “Development of Parliamentarism”, which
will be held in Moscow in July and expressed hope for a brief meeting on the sidelines of the 4th Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries' Parliaments
which will be held in Nur-Sultan on September 23–24.
Moon
Hee-sang accepted with gratitude the invitation of the Russian colleague,
stressing that, in particular, the new formats raise interparliamentary
communication ”to an absolutely new level.“
“As for our
well-established format, the Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries'
Parliaments. I highly commend this format and I think that we successfully
implement our initiative. The Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries'
Parliaments is becoming an international brand recognized all over the world,”
said the Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea.
He said
that more than 48 applications from the parliaments of Eurasian countries had
already been filed, but for the first time, parliamentarians from Germany,
France, and Italy expressed their wish to participate in the meeting.
According
to Moon Hee-sang, this demonstrates ”the level of Russia's influence on the international arena.“ He also invited Viacheslav Volodin to discuss
the possibility of holding the 5th Meeting in one of the ASEAN countries, for example, in Vietnam or the Philippines.
Digital
economy is a priority
During the meeting, the Chairman of the State Duma, Viacheslav Volodin, also proposed a Korean colleague to hold a joint Russian-Korean forum on the development of the digital economy.
“I propose
to discuss the topic of the digital economy together with Korean IT companies
that have achieved a lot in the creation of artificial intelligence, robotics,
and our Russian companies that are working in this area,” he said.
Viacheslav
Volodin said that “by combining efforts we will be able to do a lot for the development of our countries, first of all, the economy, in this area.”
“We can
organize a forum with the participation of representatives of the business
community, which has developments [in the digital economy sphere]. We can
discuss this at our next high-level commission which will be held in Seoul. But
definitely this is an extremely important topic for the development of the economies of our countries,” said Viacheslav Volodin
“This is a completely new sphere and it requires legislative regulation. Legislators
should deal with digital rights, human and robot relations and many other
issues,” said the Chairman of the State Duma, noting that dialogue between
countries is especially important in this sphere, since “a lot of approaches
will be universal.”
At the end
of the meeting, Moon Hee-sang invited Viacheslav Volodin to visit the Republic
of Korea again.
