The Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council met with Wang Chen, First Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People's Congress.
Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Ilyas Umakhanov met with First Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People's Congress Wang Chen via videoconference.
The meeting was also attended by Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachev, Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Deputy Head of the Cooperation Group between the Federation Council and National People's Congress of China Vladimir Dzhabarov, and Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee Bair Zhamsuyev.
The two sides discussed the current status and development outlook for bilateral parliamentary ties, and the preparations for the Russian-Chinese inter-parliamentary commission’s meeting.
The participants touched on matters related to overcoming the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, and agreed on the need for joint and coordinated efforts to achieve this.
“In this most difficult time, we have extended a helping hand to each other. We have sent humanitarian supplies and medical specialists, and coordinated our actions to bring people home and control access at the border. Even though the situation has significantly improved in both Russia and China, it is still essential to further strengthen cooperation in this area,” Ilyas Umakhanov said.
It is especially important to ensure all companies equal access to the international market for coronavirus drugs and vaccines, the senator underscored. His interlocutors agreed that policies such as protectionism, unilateral sanctions and restrictions in the international arena are unacceptable.
The participants noted that their bilateral cooperation has not lost momentum, but the two countries are enhancing their comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation. This includes a wide range of contacts between the two legislatures.
“The parliamentarians in Russia and China continue their consistent efforts to reform their legal systems, develop measures to stimulate bilateral economic, humanitarian, and interregional ties, and share legislative initiatives aimed at social development. The inter-parliamentary dialogue is used vigorously as a channel to discuss international matters,” Ilyas Umakhanov noted.
According to Mr Umakhanov, contact between legislators enrich the Russian-Chinese partnership, and open up broad opportunities for identifying new promising areas of practical cooperation.
The parties discussed other topics on the international agenda, specifically emphasising that it is unacceptable to distort history. “Our countries adhere to similar views on and assessments of the causes, the course and results of World War II. Together they oppose any attempts to falsify history. The UN Charter stipulates collective decision-making with regard to the world’s future, non-interference in internal affairs and respect for the sovereignty of states. We highly appreciate our Chinese partners’ determination to resist, in this difficult situation, any attempts at outside interference and even direct containment of Russia or China in the international arena,” Ilyas Umakhanov stressed.
He mentioned the Years of Russian-Chinese scientific, technical and innovation cooperation that the two countries launched on 26 August 2020 at the initiative of the Russian and Chinese leaders.
The senator proposed considering, at the Russian-Chinese inter-parliamentary commission, proposals for adding specific events to those projects and sharing examples of successful scientific and innovative cooperation.
Wang Chen praised the acceleration of both countries’ trade and economic development as well as mutual trade. In the context of the pandemic, our economic ties have been resilient to stress, so today, they are rapidly approaching a new level; new growth points are being created, Wang Chen said.
The participants discussed aspects of interregional and cross-border cooperation, reaffirmed the need to intensify them, including through the mechanisms of inter-parliamentary cooperation between the two countries.
One of the important topics tackled at the meeting was preparations for the World Conference on Interfaith and Inter-Ethnic Dialogue, an event to be attended by political leaders, members of parliament and representatives of world religions. The conference will take place in Russia in May 2022 in cooperation with the UN.