Moscow City Duma Chairman and Chinese Ambassador to Russia discuss inter-parliamentary co-operation

Chairman of the Moscow City Duma (MCD) Alexey Shaposhnikov and Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui held a meeting, as a result of which the Chinese colleagues were invited to the International Municipal Forum of BRICS countries. The event will be held in the Russian capital on 27-28 August. Moscow City Duma is a partner of TV BRICS.

"The programme includes about 80 events, which will be attended by more than 5 thousand Russian and more than 1 thousand foreign representatives of metropolitan and municipal governments of BRICS countries," said Shaposhnikov.

At the forum, the Moscow City Duma will present programmes dedicated to the development of cooperation at the level of BRICS capitals, as well as through youth parliaments. The initiative of Moscow deputies will make it possible to implement the idea voiced by Vladimir Putin on the margins of the BRICS Parliamentary Forum to create a unified structure of legislative bodies of the countries of the association, Shaposhnikov believes.

"The Moscow City Duma is also developing co-operation with its colleagues from Chinese cities. Thus, in 2000, a Protocol of Cooperation was signed between the Moscow City Duma and the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress," the parliamentarian added.

In turn, Zhang Hanhui noted that on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Russian Federation there is an intensive exchange of visits of various formats. In particular, two meetings between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping were held in 2024.

He also spoke about the work already done by Russia and China in several areas and its importance for building further relations.

"I would like to separately note two leading areas of interaction between our capitals. The first is, of course, innovation. Moscow and Beijing are leaders in this direction. The second is joint work in the field of mutual settlements. It is necessary to create a clearing platform, there is already a model of it," said Zhang Hanhui.