On September 23, the Chairman
of the State Duma 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)
held a meeting with the Chairwoman of the Milli Majlis (Parliament) of the Republic of Azerbaijan Sahiba Gafarova.
Viacheslav Volodin congratulated his Azerbaijani counterpart on her appointment as Speaker of the Parliament and wished her successful work. The Chairman of the State Duma noted the fact that the pandemic had changed communication process between parliamentarians. “Due to the pandemic, our communications at the parliamentary level have been significantly limited. Almost all meetings have been held via videoconference. You are our first guest who came there since the outbreak of the pandemic,” said Viacheslav Volodin.
He stressed that ”Azerbaijan is an important strategic partner of Russia.“ The heads of our states continue to maintain constant dialogue and the task of parliaments is to provide legislative support for their decisions. “It is very important for us to develop relations between parliaments. We are able to understand each other better, to participate in the development of decisions and to work in various formats with a help of dialogue,“ emphasized the Chairman of the State Duma.
Sahiba Gafarova invited Viacheslav Volodin to pay an official visit to Azerbaijan. “We will be very glad to welcome you there. There are a lot of issues of interest for our sides, our countries, our republics. I look forward to continuing our cooperation,” she said.
Viacheslav Volodin accepted the invitation: “We will definitely come with my colleagues. Moreover, we are in the final stages of preparation of an agreement on the establishment of a High-level Inter-parliamentary Commission. We will be able to not only discuss issues of development of relations between our nations, our countries, but also to discuss specific issues of the Commission's agenda, that would bring together our parliamentarians to address key challenges at the parliamentary level. Such forms of development of relations are our contribution to the strengthening of our cooperation.”
During the meeting, the parties discussed issues of enhancement of bilateral inter-parliamentary cooperation, interaction at international inter-parliamentary platforms, and approximation of national legislations.
The Speakers adopted a communiqué at the end of the meeting.
Russian and Azerbaijani
parliamentarians held also a meeting of the ”friendship group“ at the State Duma. The Chairman of the Committee on Issues of the CIS and Contacts
with Fellow Countrymen Leonid Kalashnikov
Leonid Ivanovich
and the Chairman of the Committee of the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan on International Relations and Interparliamentary
Affairs Samad Ismayil oglu Seyidov chaired the meeting.
