Russian State Duma delegation headed by Vyacheslav Volodin has arrived in the Republic of Serbia.

The visit is scheduled to include meetings between Vyacheslav Volodin and the President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and the President of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia Maja Gojković.

According to TASS news agency, during the meeting with the President of the Republic of Serbia, Vyacheslav Volodin conveyed the greetings of the President of the Russian Federation to Mr Vučić.

“I would like to stress once again that we are friends, brothers, and we proceed from the fact that our relations are based on the principles of friendship, trust and mutual assistance,” said the Chairman of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.

In addition, during his working visit to the Republic of Serbia, Vyacheslav Volodin will speak at a special session of the National Assembly convened by the President of the Serbian Parliament Maja Gojković.

President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation will have a bilateral meeting and lay wreaths at the monument to the Liberators of Belgrade during the visit.

Later, Ms Gojković and Mr Volodin will then open and chair the 4th meeting of the Cooperation Commission, which represents a continuation of this form of joint work and dialogue between the two parliaments that began with the establishment of the Commission in Moscow in December 2015.

The topics of the Commission’s meeting are the Serbian-Russian inter-parliamentary cooperation in bilateral and multilateral formats, as well as countering contemporary challenges and threats, finding ways to establish a new security system and fighting for the fundamental principles of international law, including for the settlement of the Kosovo issue. The Commission will also discuss cooperation between Serbia and Russia in the energy sector, as well as in culture, science and youth exchange.

Let us recall that by a resolution of the Council of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2011 the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia was granted observer status at the CSTO PA.