Speaker of the Federation Council met with the president of the Central American Parliament on the sidelines of the Third Eurasian Women’s Forum
Russian Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko met with President of the Central American Parliament Fanny Carolina Fernandez on the sidelines of the Third Eurasian Women’s Forum in St. Petersburg. The conversation mainly focused on expanding interparliamentary ties.
Matviyenko said that the participation of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) president in the current Forum confirms the desire to strengthen interaction and testifies to the growing interest of states in the subregion to bolster ties with Russia.
“PARLACEN has become an important platform for international cooperation on a wide range of issues on the regional and world agendas,” Matviyenko said.
The Federation Council speaker said that Russia aims to promote a positive agenda in all areas of interaction with Central American nations, including through inter-parliamentary cooperation.
Matviyenko pointed out that all the national parliaments of Central America have friendship groups with Russia. “Russia is ready to sign an agreement on its participation as an observer in the Central American integration system, which would provide an additional impetus to developing the entire range of ties.”
She expressed support for the initiative put forward by PARLASEN to establish the Eurasian – Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. Matviyenko believes that this project needs to be studied in terms of developing dialogue mechanisms for the Eurasian integration space and the Latin American region.
The two women noted that they support the initiatives that have been carried out within the framework of the Cooperation Agreement between the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the Central American Parliament.
They also spoke about ways to overcome the pandemic. “Latin American parliamentarians have actively become involved in joint efforts to counter this new global threat,” Matviyenko said.
Fernandez confirmed that Central American countries are interested in developing ties with Russia, including through parliaments. Russia’s involvement in election observation missions in Central America is of particular interest.
The meeting was also attended by Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Chairman Grigory Karasin.
Official website of the Third Eurasian Women’s Forum: 2021.eawf.ru.
The general partner of the Forum is the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade; strategic partners: Promsvyazbank, Bank FC Otkritie, Rosseti, and RZD-Medicine; official partner: Arconic Corporation; business programme partners: Russian Export Centre, KFC, and Rostelecom; partner of the environmental platform: Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO.
