Speaker of the Federation Council speaks about her visit to Brunei.
Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko spoke to reporters about the preliminary results of her visit to Brunei.
According to the Federation Council Speaker, the meeting with the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah was lengthy, constructive and substantive. “We discussed the entire range of Russia-Brunei relations and the international agenda.”
Valentina Matvienko passed on to the Sultan of Brunei a message from the President of the Russian Federation.
According to Valentina Matvienko, Hassanal Bolkiah highly praised the level of bilateral relations, expressed his respect for our country and plans to visit the Russian Federation again and asked to convey to the President of Russia an invitation to pay an official visit to Brunei.
“We discussed the level of our trade and economic relations, and investment cooperation, which needs to be increased,” Valentina Matvienko said. She also informed Hassanal Bolkiah of the prospects for Brunei investors opening up in Russia. “Opportunities for investment are open in the oil and gas industry, infrastructure and agriculture,” Federation Council Speaker said expressing confidence that these proposals would be of interest to investors from Brunei.
According to Valentina Matvienko, the President’s message to the Sultan of Brunei said Russia is ready to consider proposals to expand bilateral cooperation. “The President said Russia highly appreciates Brunei’s balanced position on major regional and international issues,” she added.
Speaking of the outcomes of the Russian delegation’s visit, she mentioned the talks at the Legislative Council of Brunei. “A Memorandum of Cooperation has been signed, which is especially important in the context of the intensively expanding Russia-Brunei relations,” said Valentina Matvienko.
She underscored that Brunei is an important partner of Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. “Bandar Seri Begawan has made a significant contribution to dispelling the doubts of individual ASEAN countries about giving Russia-ASEAN dialogue and partnership a strategic character, which was documented during the third Russia-ASEAN Summit in Singapore in November 2018,” the Federation Council Speaker noted.
According to Valentina Matvienko, the importance of the Federation Council delegation’s visit was recognised at all levels, including at the meeting with the Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Brunei Darussalam, Princess Masna.
“Besides economic and military technical cooperation, we discussed educational and cultural cooperation. There is great interest in this,” said Valentina Matvienko. She suggested considering the possibility of opening a department within one of the Brunei universities to study Russian. “Given the growing volume of relations, such specialists will be in great demand,” she pointed out.
“Inter-regional cooperation has also aroused considerable interest,” Valentina Matvienko said.
The Federation Council Speaker also noted that she had invited the Speaker of the Legislative Council of Brunei to pay an official visit to Russia, and he confirmed his intention to do so.