October 19 Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, met with the participants of the 13^th session of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

Mr. Nikolay Rizhkov, Co-Chairman Commission, informed the President of the National Assembly that due to the good preparatory work the 13^th session had an effective progress, and they were pleased with the results of the session. Referring to the report of Mr. Hovhannes Ohanyan, member of the commission, Chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy, Business and Ownership, Mr. Rizhkov highlighted from that report the separation of the provisions, which are connected with the legislative issues. Mr. Rizhkov also highlighted the successful fulfillment of the programme of the events dedicated to the 20^th anniversary of the 1988 earthquake, noting that he talked about it at the meeting with the President of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Robert Kocharyan and received his approval.

Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President of the National Assembly expressing confidence that the session of the commission had been effective, highlighted the further procedure of the adopted decisions and noted that the issues needing legislative additional elaboration and proposed in Mr. Hovhannes Ohanyan’s report would be studied and solved. The President of the National Assembly wished successes to his Russian counterpartners in the upcoming parliamentary elections, expressing confidence that the Armenian-Russian inter-parliamentary cooperation would develop effectively.

At the request of Mr. Igor Chernishenko, the deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the President of the National Assembly touched upon the upcoming visit of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Armenia. It was noted that Armenia and Iran have common interests and joint economic programmes (the construction of the gas pipeline, the railway communication). After the re-establishment of the independence Armenia always had good relations with its southern neighbour, there were mutual visits with the presidents of the two countries, the President of the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran had been hosted in the National Assembly and the upcoming visit of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran would further promote the development of the mutual relations.