Russian Duma chief urges to use results of BRICS parliamentary forum at Ufa summit

MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. The leader of Russia's parliamentary lower house said he hoped that results of a BRICS parliamentary forum opening in Moscow on Monday would be used in work at July’s summit of the group of emerging market nations. "The summit, which will take place in [the Russian city of] Ufa in a month, is definitely the main event during Russia’s presidency of BRICS this year. And we certainly hope that results of today’s BRICS parliamentary forum will be used in work of our countries’ leaders," State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin said at a meeting with Eduardo Cunha, the president of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the nation's parliament. Naryshkin stressed that the Russian side together with counterparts from Brazil, India, China and South Africa "will lay the foundations for a parliamentary dimension of the BRICS group". "I would like to note that this initiative was put forward several years ago by lawmakers from Brazil's Chamber of Deputies of the National Congress," he said, adding that Russia appreciated Brazil’s role as an informal leader and a prime mover in development of Latin America. Russia maintained good relations with Brazil, Naryshkin said, noting that cooperation between the two countries was characterised by a high level of trust and mutual understanding. He said Russia and Brazil had established a long-term strategic partnership "and now this cooperation finds itself on the upswing". Brazil's Speaker Cunha said that the country’s delegation in Moscow attached great importance to BRICS work. "One of the aims of our visit is to further strengthen bilateral ties with Russia," he said, recalling also that due to persistence of Brazilian lawmakers, the country’s parliament managed to swiftly ratify an agreement to establish a BRICS-led new development bank. Read more