The Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council took part in a workshop on making the chamber’s cooperation groups with foreign parliaments more effective and better coordinating their work.
The Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs held a workshop on making the Federation Council’s groups for cooperation with foreign parliaments and parliamentary chambers more effective and better coordinating their work.
Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev took part in the meeting, which was moderated by Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin.
In his remarks, Konstantin Kosachev noted the increasing relevance of making effective use of the potential of Federation Council groups for cooperation with foreign parliaments.
“Even in the parliaments of unfriendly countries, there are still people who have preserved their common sense and understand their responsibility in view of the ongoing developments. We need to maintain contact with them given the lack of official communication channels,” the Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council said.
According to Konstantin Kosachev, Russia is about to enter a new stage in the development of its bilateral relations with a number of countries and in terms of its interaction within multilateral frameworks. “This amplifies the expansion of opportunities for parliamentary diplomacy,” he pointed out.
Grigory Karasin said that by engaging in a regular exchange of views on all matters pertaining to the bilateral agenda with its foreign partners, Russia can make effective use of this resource in order to inform its interlocutors about its position on topical international matters and present its arguments.
“The challenging foreign policy environment has offered us an impetus for reformatting our interparliamentary activity by focusing more on working with CIS countries, as well as deepening ties with countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Over the past two years alone, the Federation Council has established new cooperation groups with the parliaments of Namibia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Singapore, Algeria, Nicaragua, and other countries,” the senator pointed out.
Deputy Director at the Department for Liaisons with the Subjects of the Federation, the Parliament and Public Associations at the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation, Valery Maslin, said that his ministry was interested in stepping up interparliamentary contacts.
“We believe that Asia is emerging as the primary focus of these efforts, with the People’s Republic of China acting as Russia’s key partner,” he said. He went on to mention Latin America and the African continent as important vectors for promoting interparliamentary cooperation.
Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Andrey Klishas, Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Federal Structure, Regional Policy, Local Government and Northern Affairs Andrei Shevchenko, First Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Vladimir Dzhabarov, First Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Science, Education and Culture Iliyas Umakhanov, and other senators of the Russian Federation took part in this workshop.