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ABU DHABI / WAM
Dr. Amal Abdullah Al Qubaisi, Speaker of Federal National Council, FNC, has received Ilyas Umakhanov Deputy Chairmen of the Federation Council of Russia and the accompanying delegation, at FNC headquarters in Abu Dhabi.
During the meeting, they discussed ways to strengthen friendship and cooperation between the UAE and Russia in various fields, especially in the parliamentary domain in the best interests of the two friendly peoples.
Umakhanov congratulated Al Qubaisi on her selection as FNC speaker. He handed over her an official invitation letter from Chairwoman of the Federation Council, Upper house of Russia’s parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, to visit Russia and the Russian Federation Council.
Marwan Ahmad bin Galita, First Deputy Speaker of FNC, Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Zaabi, Second Deputy Speaker of FNC, and FNC members in addition to some officials from the Russian embassy attended the meeting.
Dr. Amal welocmed the Russian delegation, pointing out the visit confirms the desire of the Russian Federation Council to develop friendship ties with FNC. She added that visit would contribute to boosting bilateral cooperation between the two parliaments on issues of mutual interests between the two countries at all domains.
The two sides also stressed the importance of enhancing parliamentary cooperation and exchange of visits between the two councils through establishing of a friendly parliamentary committee to exchange expertise among specialised committees.
She also praised Russia’s stance of supporting the UAE over its three Islands, occupied by Iran.
On his part, Umakhanov expressed that Russia looks forward to enhance relations with the UAE and in particularly the FNC, noting the multiple and available investment opportunities and potentials of the two countries in various domains. He also wished that FNC would support the Russian Parliament’s bid to host the meetings of Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, in Moscow in 2017 as well as to accept the invitation of the Speaker of the Federation Council to visit Russia to enhance bilateral ties.
Al Qubaisi welcomed the invitation, expressing her support for Russia to host the Inter-parliamentary Union’s meeting through coordination with the Arab Group in
the IPU.