Russian Foreign Ministry and Federation Council advocating closer contacts

The Federation Council, which is the Russian Parliament's upper house, should play a more active role in formulating the Russian foreign policy. This was disclosed here the other day by Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, who was addressing a conference on inter-parliamentary cooperation issues.

According to Mironov, this conference is perceived as a permanent body for controlling the system of inter-parliamentary contacts and as a mechanism for interacting with the Russian Foreign Ministry, the presidential administration and the State Duma.

We'll be holding such conferences twice a year, that is, early each year and at the end of the spring-summer session, Mironov stressed.

This approach will make it possible to set timely 12-month tasks and long-term tasks, to sum up the relevant experience of our work and to make timely adjustments in line with specific everyday objectives, Mironov believes.

We must more fully unravel the foreign-policy potential of the Federation Council's permanent committees, our permanent delegations at international parliamentary organizations, at bilateral inter-parliamentary commissions, as well as groups for cooperating with foreign parliaments, Mironov said in conclusion.

For his own part, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov talked to reporters, after the July 8 conference on inter-parliamentary cooperation wound up, saying that joint efforts by the Foreign Ministry and the Parliament to draft specific aspects as regards the implementation of the Russian foreign policy were quite helpful.

Inter-parliamentary diplomacy is an important instrument for implementing our foreign policy in many countries of the world, Lavrov told his audience.

Russian foreign policy sill considers intra-CIS integration as one of its main priorities, Lavrov went on to say.

CIS territory is our top priority; consequently, the Foreign Ministry aspires for expanded cooperation, Lavrov noted in conclusion.