Today, in her official visit to Moscow, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic met the Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Boris Gryzlov. In an exceptionally cordial and friendly meeting the two parliament speakers talked about intensifying parliamentary cooperation which should follow other levels of cooperation at the very top, as well as cooperation on a friendly level cultivated between Serbian and Russian citizens for centuries.

Speaker Gryzlov expressed his pleasure at the overall relations with Serbia stressing that the two countries cooperate intensively on the realisation of important projects which will contribute to Serbia’s economic development, and which both countries will benefit from. All the parties in the State Duma are unified in their support of further development of cooperation with Serbia – Boris Gryzlov emphasised, pointing out that the goods exchange between Russia and Serbia has risen considerably this year in relation to the previous period, and that the volume of Russian investment into Serbian economy is on the rise.

Assembly Speaker Djukic-Dejanovic reminded the representatives of the two parliaments that they need to follow their people’s mood not only on the economic level, but also to continue their efforts on strengthening the cooperation on the cultural, educational, scientific and health levels. The traditional spiritual relations characterising these two nations should be pragmatically transformed into mutually useful deals such as the recently ratified gas arrangement. The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia invited Boris Gryzlov to visit Serbia and pointed out that the State Duma parliamentary delegation would be welcome in Serbia at any time.

In separate meetings, the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy and Entrepreneurship, Evgeny Fedorov, also the coordinator of the group for cooperation with the Serbian parliament, and the Chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev, exchanged opinions on many current issues in the relations of the two countries, with the Serbian delegation which also included deputies Dusan Bajatovic, Vuk Dincic and Nenad Popovic.

Evgeny Fedorov stressed that there is a great potential for cooperation between two parliaments’ deputy friendship groups since Russia understands the challenges facing Serbia, and that Russia’s real intention to strategically change the structure of its economy is a good basis to further strengthen economic and any other cooperation with Serbia.

Konstantin Kosachev stressed that, in addition to its principled support of Serbia’s politics on abiding by international law in the matter of Serbia’s state integrity and sovereignty in Kosovo-Metohija, Russia makes a clear distinction between the process of approaching European integration and the further expansion of NATO.

During her stay in Moscow, Assembly Speaker Djukic-Dejanovic attended a session of the Russian Federation State Duma, and chairman Mr Gryzlov’s announcement of the presence of a delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia was greeted with spontaneous applause by the deputies present.

At the end of the official part of the NARS Speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic’s visit to Moscow, the Deputy Speaker of the RF State Duma Lyubov Sliska organised a lunch in honour of the Serbian delegation.