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Duma speaker to attend Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy in Greece

MOSCOW, July 4. /TASS/. Speaker of the Russian State Duma lower house of parliament Sergei Naryshkin is departing on Monday on a two-day working visit to the city of Thessaloniki to attend the official opening ceremony of the 23rd General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy (IAO).

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Within the visit framework the Duma speaker is expected to meet with the Greek parliament leadership. In addition, he "plans a pilgrimage visit to Mount Athos and attending the opening of an exhibition of photographs and engravings called "Athos. Holy Mountain," the lower house website reported earlier.

The State Duma speaker will also participate in a roundtable discussion that will focus on the issue of the historical and cultural aspects of Russian-Greek relations.

The Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy was established in 1993, Russia joined it in 1994.

The IAO currently brings together 27 countries (Australia, Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Russia, Romania, Syria, Slovakia, the United States, Uganda, Ukraine, Finland, Estonia, Yugoslavia).

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