All news

Russian upper house ready to resume dialogue with Turkey — speaker

The Federation Council speaker says the format for the inter-parliamentary dialogue is discussed
Russian Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko Russian Federation Council press service/TASS
Russian Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko
© Russian Federation Council press service/TASS

MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. The Russian Federation Council upper house of parliament is ready to resume dialogue with the Turkish Parliament, Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko told journalists on Wednesday.

"We are ready to resume our inter-parliamentary relations with the Turkish parliament", Matviyenko said.

She added that the issue of "the possible format of such a dialogue" is currently being discussed.

"We believe that it (the inter-parliamentary dialogue) will also be extremely useful," Matviyenko said.

The speaker said er spirits rose after reports about a telephone conversation between the Russian and Turkish presidents and agreements they have reached.

"Even my spirits have risen, as we have finally overcome the serious obstacles to the development of Russian-Turkish relations, and we will develop them, also remembering the lessons we learned from the tragedy, the crime that was committed when our military plane was downed and our pilot was killed," she said.

The Federation Council speaker said that although the Turkish side’s apologies "are seven months late," it is "the most important event in the normalization of Turkish-Russian relations."