The conversation took place on the sidelines of the G20 Parliamentary Forum in New Delhi.
Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Ninth G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit (P20) in New Delhi. The conversation took place after the forum's opening ceremony.
Narendra Modi addressed the G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit, calling it a great and important event. He said the forum is a wonderful opportunity to honour the individual and his willpower, and to appreciate the importance of parliament as the main venue for debate. The greater the people's participation in decision-making, the more effective parliamentary work is, the Prime Minister of India noted.
Speaker of the Lok Sabha of the Indian Parliament Om Birla also addressed the opening ceremony. He said the parliamentary dimension of the G20 under the Indian chairmanship was meant to show the eagerness of lawmakers to find solutions to the problems of the day. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha said that the motto 'One World One Family' is the foundation of our culture. The theme of the forum is ‘One Earth. One Family. One Future.’
President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Duarte Pacheco in his speech emphasised that it is the parliamentarians who represent their people, and are obliged to cooperate to realise the aspirations of citizens, achieving success through compromise. ”Our common goal is to pursue development and be at peace with each other. We can only achieve this goal together.“
On the sidelines of the summit, Valentina Matvienko also had brief talks with the Chairperson of the South African National Council of Provinces Amos Masondo, Speaker of the South African National Assembly Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Speaker of the Federal National Council of the UAE Saqr Ghobash Saeed, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Indonesia Puan Maharani.
The Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation was also represented at the Ninth G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit by First Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Andrei Turchak, Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev and State Duma deputies.