Chairman of the International Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky held meetings with the heads of diplomatic missions of Switzerland and Iceland, where they discussed the development of cooperation between Russia and these European countries in various fields.
With the Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation to the Russian Federation Christine Marie Lang, the parties discussed in detail the economic aspects, issues of interaction at inter-parliamentary platforms, including in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. L.E. Slutsky proposed to intensify contacts through parliamentary diplomacy.
The topic of inter-parliamentary cooperation was also central at the meeting with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Iceland to the Russian Federation Aurni Tor Sigurdson. Prospects for an exchange of visits by parliamentary delegations, the creation of a Friendship Group of the State Duma with the Althingi, and a joint meeting of the foreign policy committees of the parliaments of Russia and Iceland were discussed.
L.E. Slutsky recalled the initiative of the Chairman of the State Duma Viacheslav Volodin to create an International Institute for the Preservation of Historical Memory, the main task of which would be to resist attempts to falsify the history of the Second World War. “Along with the possibility of opening its branches in Belgrade (the Serbian colleagues confirmed their readiness), one could think about a branch of the institute in Rekjavik, if, of course, the Icelandic side supports Russia in this noble undertaking.”
