Visit of Russia’s State Duma leader to boost legislative cooperation: official

Hanoi (VNA) - The official visit to Vietnam by Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Victorovich Volodin from October 15-16 will contribute to further promoting legislative cooperation in particular, and consolidating political trust and strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries in general, a senior Vietnamese legislator has said.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly (NA)'s Committee for External Affairs Nguyen Manh Tien made the affirmation in an interview with the Vietnam News Agency on the threshold of the Russian Duma leader’s visit, saying that this is an important highlight in the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia in the context that the two sides are implementing a joint statement on the vision on their comprehensive strategic partnership until 2030. 

Tien highlighted the fruitful development of the Vietnam - Russia relationship in recent times, saying that this is the second time Volodin has visited Vietnam. His first visit followed the trip to Russia by then Vietnamese NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan in 2019. 

According to the NA official, during this visit, the Russian State Duma Chairman and the Vietnamese NA Chairman will co-chair the second meeting of the inter-parliamentary cooperation committee of the two legislative bodies, which was postponed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tien noted that the inter-parliamentary cooperation committee mechanism is the highest-level model of parliamentary cooperation that has been set up for the first time between Vietnam’s NA and a foreign legislative body.

In the second meeting of the committee, the two sides are scheduled to review the implementation of agreements between the two countries, and consider issues that need to be adjusted and supplemented so that the bilateral cooperative relationship can achieve the best results.

Within the framework of the visit, the two sides’ officials will discuss development orientations for the cooperative relationship between the two parliaments, and exchange views on international and regional issues of common concern.

The cooperative relationship between the two countries has a good development foundation, Tien stressed, noting that many Vietnamese managers and scientists have been trained in Russia, and many scientific, economic and technical cooperation projects between the two countries have been implemented.

He said that there is ample room for the two sides to expand cooperation, emphasising the need to fully tap potential and advantages of each side in order to bring benefits to the people of the two countries, and contribute to peace, and stability in the region and the world.

Vietnam and Russia officially established diplomatic relations on January 30, 1950, and upgraded their relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2012./.