Manila (VNA) – Parliamentary tiesbetween Vietnam and Russia are important to overall relations, Vice Chairwomanof the National Assembly of Vietnam Tong Thi Phong has said.

The NA official made the statement at a meetingwith Vice Speaker of the State Duma of Russia Olga Epifanova on the sidelinesof the 38th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA38) in Manila, the Philippines, on September 16.

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The bilateral strategic partnership has beenreinforced over the years, Phong said, adding that Vietnam and Russia’sParties, Governments, parliaments and people have been promoting theirrelations, while cooperative ties across the fields from economics,science-technology, cultural exchanges, and education to military, defence andsecurity, are expanding.

Notably, the two countries’ parliaments haveshared experience in law-making and inspections and supported each other atinternational forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the AsiaPacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF), and the AIPA.

The NA Vice Chairwoman suggested the two sidesboost high-level delegation exchanges to increase mutual understanding andshare know-how in parliamentary activities in addition to promotingconsultative mechanisms and coordination at multilateral forums such as IPU,APPF and AIPA.

She informed the Russian side that Vietnam’sNational Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan will attend the 137th IPUAssembly in Russia this October.

For her part, Olga Epifanova called on the twonations’ parliamentary committees to increase experience sharing andpeople-to-people exchanges.

She confirmed she will visit Vietnam to attendthe 26th Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26) in January 2018.

The Duma Vice Speaker also suggested educating younggenerations about the traditional ties between Vietnam and Russia.-VNA