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Russia’s, Bolivia’s upper parliament houses to sign cooperation agreement in 2015

For the first time, at least in the 21st century, a Russian delegation took part in the inauguration ceremony of the Bolivian president

BOGOTA, January 24. /TASS/. Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house and Bolivia’s Senate plan to sign in 2015 an agreement on inter-parliamentary cooperation, Ilyas Umakhanov, deputy Federation Council speaker, told TASS after a visit to Bolivia to attend the inauguration ceremony of Bolivian President Evo Morales.

“For the first time, at least in the 21st century, a Russian delegation took part in the inauguration ceremony of the Bolivian president,” Umakhanov said. “It was a key purpose of our visit. Apart from that, we were tasked to invigorate Russian-Bolivian inter-parliamentary contact.”

“We met with the new speaker of the Senate of the Bolivia’s Plurinational Legislative Assembly Eugenio Rojas Apaza and handed over to him a message from /Russia’s Federation Council speaker/ Valentina Matviyenko, where she invited her colleague to visit Russia in 2015,” the Russian lawmaker said. “Rojas accepted this invitation and we agreed that when he came on a visit to Russia, we will sign a cooperation agreement between Russia’s Federation Council and Bolivia’s House of Senators.”

“We also agree to coordinate our efforts within other international formats, including the Latin American Parliament, which is actively cooperating with the Inter-parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States /CIS/,” he underscored. “In the context of bilateral cooperation, an agreement was reached on keeping a parliamentary control over two major issues - mutual recognition of higher education diplomas and vise-free travels for the two countries’ citizens. Taking into account a stable growth in the number of Bolivian students at Russia’s universities, our parliaments should waste no time to prepare and ratify these documents.”.