Konstantin Kosachev read out the Federation Council Speaker’s greetings to the participants of the G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit.
Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko sent greetings to the participants of the 11th G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit, which is taking place in South Africa. Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev delivered the welcoming address at a plenary session.
The Federation Council Speaker thanked her South African colleagues for their active professional work during their G20 presidency. She noted that the first African country’s mission to chair the forum is taking place in the year of a major anniversary for the continent. “Sixty-five years ago, on the initiative of the Soviet Union, the UN Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples was adopted. Over the past few years, the African continent has achieved internationally recognised success in many areas. Africa’s growing influence is further evidenced by the fact that the African Union is now a full member of the G20.
Valentina Matvienko emphasised the motto of the South African presidency -Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainable Development — which is extremely relevant today, as the call for the participation of the World Majority countries in global governance is becoming increasingly strong. She believes that the G20 strives to implement this principle in its activities. “Russia fully supports this bid for a more equitable multipolar world order. The importance of parliamentary diplomacy is multiples of what it usually is given these circumstances. Recently, at the Inter-Parliamentary Union events in Geneva, the global parliamentary community reaffirmed its support for international law and the key role of the UN, as opposed to obscure “rules-based order,” where the rules are not drafted by everyone and do not serve everyone’s best interests,” the Federation Council Speaker said.
The head of the upper house of the Russian parliament considers it significant that the Global South is proposing relevant responses to the challenges of the 21st century. For example, African countries have put forward an initiative to draft a multilateral UN tax convention, which would make the international financial system fairer, more universal, and, most importantly, free from bias, she said.
“At the recent SCO summit in Tianjin, a decision was made to establish the SCO Development Bank. The New Development Bank, established by the BRICS countries, is functioning effectively. All of these are not competition tools, but working and depoliticised mechanisms for supporting the countries in need,” Valentina Matvienko said.
According to her, Russia’s position is to achieve equal access for developing countries to financial resources, strategic raw materials, affordable energy, and advanced technologies. “There should be no artificially created barriers to development. In particular, the use of “climate” rhetoric as a tool of unfair competition is unacceptable,“ the Federation Council Speaker said.
Such approaches, she added, also impact food markets. “As a result, the number of people affected by famine worldwide has been rising for several years now. Our country, despite external opposition, is contributing to food security by fulfilling all its obligations. And we will continue to do so. We consider any attempts to stand in the way of food and fertiliser supplies a deliberate attack on our efforts to overcome hunger which is our shared mission.”
Valentina Matvienko expressed confidence that genuine multilateralism can be achieved by joint efforts.
A delegation from the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, including Deputy Chair of the Committee on Economic Policy Alexander Trembitsky, Member of the Committee on the Budget and Financial Markets Elena Diaghileva, and State Duma Deputy Roza Chemeris is participating in the summit events.