The meeting took place during the G20 Parliamentary Forum.
Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko held talks with Om Birla, Speaker of the House of the People (Lok Sabha) of the Republic of India’s Parliament, during the 9th G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit in New Delhi.
The Federation Council Speaker thanked her Indian colleague for the high standard of the G20 Parliamentary Forum and the constructive work on coordinating the text of its final declaration.
“Our relations do not depend on the political environment; dialogue is being maintained at the highest political level and our relations are developing progressively in various areas,” Valentina Matvienko said. The Federation Council Speaker noted the importance of consistently improving the contractual legal framework of Russian-Indian relations and developing interparliamentary cooperation. She suggested building interaction between relevant committees of the Russian and Indian parliamentary chambers in the video conference format.
Valentina Matvienko said that Russia was interested in cooperating with India in a multilateral format and invited her Indian colleagues to take part in the 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum to be held in Russia in 2024.
Om Birla accepted the invitation and said that India also supports the expansion and deepening of parliamentary relations with Russia. “Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi share long and trustful relations. I hope that this friendship and cooperation will help us develop parliamentary diplomacy and strengthen relations between the governments of our countries. Thanks to parliamentary diplomacy, we can set an example and develop our relations at various multilateral platforms.”
Om Birla praised cooperation during the G20 Summit and bilateral interaction. He is confident that the participation of the Russian delegation in the G20 parliamentary forum will facilitate a global exchange of experience between parliaments regarding current issues.