On June 20, 2018, the Chairman and members of the Committee met with the delegation of the Bundestag from the Free Democratic Party led by the deputy head of her parliamentary faction, Alexander Lambsdorff.
During the meeting topical issues of the international agenda were discussed, including the aggravation of the situation in the southeast of Ukraine.
Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky invited his foreign colleagues to visit the Crimea and personally see for themselves the voluntary choice of the inhabitants of the peninsula to join Russia.
“Come to Crimea, to Sevastopol, to make sure that the Crimeans in 2014 made their choice voluntarily and returned to their native harbor – to Russia,” said Slutsky. The Russian deputy added that Crimea today successfully integrated into the legal field of the Russian Federation and “no separatism on the peninsula speaks”.
Chairman Leonid Slutsky invited the German deputies to intensify the dialogue both in bilateral format and at international venues. “The Bundestag and the State Duma should and must do their utmost to end the conflict in the Donbass. I consider it useful in the fields of the OSCE PA in Berlin to hold a trilateral meeting between the parliamentarians of Russia and Germany with the participation of representatives of the SMM to discuss the roadmap for facilitating the cessation of hostilities in the southeast of Ukraine, “the head of the committee said. He also expressed confidence that strengthening inter-parliamentary cooperation “will help overcome many artificially created obstacles in the relations between Russia and Germany.”
For his part, Lambsdorff agreed with the proposal to “work more closely”. “Your initiative to attract representatives of SMM is very constructive,” he added.