BELGRADE, June 5. /TASS/. Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has urged stronger relations between Russia and Serbia, putting emphasis on trade and economic cooperation as well as the humanitarian sector.
A State Duma delegation led by the speaker is currently on a visit to Belgrade. The speaker took part in a second session of the committee for cooperation between the Russian lower house of parliament and the Serbian parliament.
"Ties of friendship unite our peoples, this friendship has gone through many hardships but it has never happened so that we would turn our backs on each other. That is why, we must do our utmost to see our relations strengthening," Volodin said, urging the bolstering of trade-economic, cultural and educational cooperation, as well as parliamentary support for these projects.
Speaking at a session of the cooperation commission, the speaker confirmed that Russian parliamentarians were interested in seeing productive teamwork of the two parliaments. He said the Duma delegation to Belgrade included parliamentarians from all factions and leaders of six Duma committees. "The agenda of today’s session concerns a wide range of bilateral cooperation, first of all its parliamentary dimension," Volodin said.
Besides, he said the two countries should look for new forms of partnership within the framework of parliamentary cooperation, as well as in international parliamentary organizations. "We believe we can avail of these opportunities more than we are doing it now," the senior parliamentarian remarked.
In particular, he noted "big potentials of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in its parliamentary support for initiatives in the economic sector and in the sphere of environmental protection in the Black Sea region".