On July 19, 2018, an extended meeting of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs was held with the participation of 64 Russian ambassadors representing the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, and Latin America.
Leonid Slutsky spoke about the forthcoming 2-3 September in Volgograd, a large commission with Iran. “We hope, the head of Ali Larijani will come at the head,” the head of the Committee noted.
In the course of the meeting, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Japan Mikhail Yuryevich Galuzin addressed the group of ambassadors in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. He noted the exceptional importance of the parliamentary dimension in relations with Japan and spoke about the preparations for the visit of the delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs to the country. “Our parliamentary ties with Japan are in a very active phase. This is largely facilitated by the activities of the friendship group with the Parliament of Japan, “the Ambassador said.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Federal Republic of Brazil Sergei Pogosovich Akopov addressed the ambassadors in Latin American countries. In his report, he stressed that the importance of parliamentary diplomacy in Russia’s relations with the countries of Latin America and, first of all, with Brazil is growing. “The United States of America in recent years has been able to largely reformat the situation in Latin America to its own interests. Today, Brazil has virtually no government. That is, formally it is, but in fact the president, it is difficult to say that it manages the country. Nevertheless, despite all the difficulties, Brazil continues to be the largest country in Latin America. Therefore, where Brazil will go, the whole of Latin America will go there, as they say. Brazil is our strategic partner in the BRICS, and we must work with them, actively develop relations, strengthen our positions in order to prevent attempts to finally break Brazil at least from BRICS or deprive it of full sovereignty and eliminate Brazil as an independent player in the international arena “, Said Sergey Akopov.
He also noted that today in Brazil there is practically no disagreement in the approach to developing relations with Russia. However, the Russophobic campaign, which is deployed in the West today in all the media, affects Brazil in one way or another, because virtually all local media depend on foreign capital. “Contacts between deputies, parliamentarians, mutual visits of delegations, exchanges are extremely important here,” the ambassador said.
Leonid Slutsky expressed the hope that “the BRICS institutions will be strengthened, including taking into account the Brazilian factor, and we will even reach the Parliamentary Assembly in a year or two,” and also talked about a possible series of visiting joint meetings of the Committee in countries of Latin America and the African continent.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mozambique Alexander Surikov addressed the group of ambassadors in African countries.
“With the collapse of all multibillion-dollar Soviet projects and the actual evacuation of hundreds of thousands of our experts, military, civil, medical from African countries, it was interparliamentary cooperation that took the brunt of the continuity of maintaining our good relations with the countries of this continent,” he said in his speech .
“It is here that most of our friends and allies are located. Now, at a time when indeed Russophobia is in the air and in the Internet space, it does not find fertile soil on the African continent.
Leonid Slutsky noted that a few years ago the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America were exotic for parliamentarians: “We did not just fail, but we almost did not work in these areas, and we seriously lost it. Today these countries support us on international platforms, starting from the UN General Assembly. It is these countries that need to work in terms of cooperation with young political elites, including their education in Russian universities. ”
“The countries of Asia, and Africa, and Latin America – this is the gold reserve of our foreign policy, which today must be actively translated into the practical implementation of infrastructure-relevant projects, programs, including in the plane of our native parliamentary diplomacy,” concluded Chairman of the Committee.”