ST. PETERSBURG, October 15. /TASS/. Relations between Russia and Vietnam have a special and friendly character and are developing in a wide range of areas, speaker of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house Valentina Matviyenko said on Sunday at a meeting with speaker of Vietnam’s National Assembly speaker Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.
According to the press service of the Russian upper parliament house, the meeting was held on the sidelines of the 137th assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
"The Russian-Vietnamese relations based on solid traditions of friendship and mutual assistance are developing in a wide spectrum of areas," Matviyenko said. "Regular political dialogue, active cooperation between the two countries’ parliaments, ministries, agencies, political parties and public organizations are part and parcel of our strategic partnership."
She reminded about a summit-level agreement to organize a Year of Russia in Vietnam and a Year of Vietnam in Russia is 2019. "It is a vivid confirmation of the special character of relations between our countries," Matviyenko said and invited lawmakers to work on the event’s program.
She stressed that development of inter-parliamentary ties is an essential component of the Russian-Vietnamese partnership and called to enliven contacts between the parliamentary cooperation groups.
"We note with satisfaction that the two countries’ approaches to most of current issues of the international agenda are either close or identical. It makes it possible to coordinate our steps at international parliamentary forums, such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly," she said.
The Vietnamese parliament speaker, in turn, noted that the wide international representation at the current IPU assembly speaks "about the authority and global role of Russia and the Inter-Parliamentary Union/".