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On July 24 National Assembly President Hovik Abrahamyan and Speaker of the RF Federal Assembly State Duma Sergey Narishkin, who arrived in Armenia on official visit, had a joint briefing.

Summing up the results of the visit, Hovik Abrahamyan noted that numerous issues relating to bilateral relations were discussed, which were connected with economy, science, education and partnership in humanitarian and other spheres, the intensification and development of inter-parliamentary cooperation had been emphasized. “Taking into consideration the allied and strategic relations of Armenia and Russia, we also underlined the need of deepening the cooperation in international parliamentary structures. The necessity of unified position in the issues of mutual importance and the role of parliamentary diplomacy in strengthening the inner-state relations was especially stressed,” the Head of the Armenian Parliament.

Talking about effective cooperation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO PA) he also said that in September the first consultation of the Committees on Security and Defense of the parliaments of the CSTO member countries will be held in Yerevan.

In Hovik Abrahamyan’s word, taking into consideration the close cooperation shaped between the two parliaments and the necessity of deepening the partnership, the Armenian side has proposed to discuss the possibility of forming the Institute of the representatives of the two parliaments in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and State Duma of the Russian Federation.

As the RA National Assembly President noted, during the meeting with the Head of the RF Federal Assembly State Duma in the context of deepening of inner-state relations the necessity of activation of the activity of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries had been highlighted.

Thanking for hospitality and warm reception shown to the Russian Delegation the S peaker of the RF Federal Assembly State Duma Sergey Narishkin stressed that the relations with Armenia were important and dear for Russia. “Those are relations with allies, strategic partners. The development of relations literally in all spheres – political, economic, security, humanitarian, and others - is important for us,” mentioned the S peaker of the RF Federal Assembly State Duma. In his word, the two countries pay big attention to the development of bilateral and multilateral relations especially in the sphere of economy, and the trade-economic cooperation between Armenia and Russia records big rates of growth. As to Mr Narishkin, particularly the volumes of goods turnover between the two countries had been restored, reaching the level, which was in place before the world financial-economic crisis, the annual investment of the Russian organizations in Armenia is over 3bn USD. Touching upon the cooperation in economic sphere the S peaker of the RF Federal Assembly State Duma also talked about the issue of joining Armenia to the Treaty on Free Trade Zone within the CIS framework, expressing hope that it would promote Armenia’s economic development and increase goods turnover with the CIS countries.

He also thanked for promoting the development of the Russian language in Armenia, high level of teaching at schools and higher educational institutions and activity of Russian mass media. Noting that the parliaments of the two countries successfully cooperate in international platforms, Sergey Narishkin noticed that their positions either almost coincided or simply they are identical in key issues.

The parties highly appreciated the role of the inter-parliamentary diplomacy in the further development of relations and deepening of cooperation.