Naidu meets Russian Parliamentary delegation, discusses key issues

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu Monday met a Russian Parliamentary delegation and held wide-ranging discussions over key issues such as countering terrorism and boosting economic ties.

During the meeting, Chairman of the 'State Duma' of the Russian Parliament Vyacheslav Volodin called for enabling a legislative framework to fully tap the immense potential of bilateral cooperation between India and Russia.

The 30-member high-level Russian Parliamentary delegation, led by Volodin, held wide-ranging discussions on bilateral ties with Naidu.

During the 40 minute-long meeting, both the sides recalled the traditional bonds of friendship between the two counties and underscored the need to further intensify cooperation in the present world order.

Volodin stressed on the need for enhancing parliamentary exchanges between the two countries to enable necessary legislative framework to fully harness the potential of India-Russia ties in various sectors.

He urged the committees of parliaments of both the countries to be more proactive in this regard.

"There is a need to further build upon the traditional friendship between the two countries for mutual advantage in the fields of economy, human development and cultural cooperation," Volodin said.

Referring to the special and privileged strategic partnership in various multilateral forums, Naidu said the 19 annual bilateral summits between their leaders since 2000 and the recent "very productive" meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin reflected the solidarity between the countries.

He said the convergence of views between India and Russia on various international and multilateral matters needed to be taken forward through parliamentary exchanges.

Naidu referred to "the menace of terrorism" threatening the socio-economic fabric across the world and called for increased global cooperation against it.