Delegation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam visits Council of the Republic

      On 9 January 2008 Nikolai Cherginets, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic for Foreign Affairs and National Security, met with a delegation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam headed by Prof. Dang Vu Minh, member of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV NA), Chairman of the SRV NA Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, Head of the SRV NA Working group on cooperation with parliaments of CIS member-states. Anatoly Novikov, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic for Education, Science, Culture and Humanitarian Matters, Deputy Head of the Working Group of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on Cooperation with the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, also took part in the meeting.

      In the course of the meeting the parties looked at the prospects for the development of Belarus-Vietnam inter-parliamentary cooperation, interaction within the framework of international and parliamentary organizations and bilateral humanitarian, trade and economic ties.

      According to the participants of the meeting, mutual endorsement of the initiatives set up by both states and the fact that Belarus and Vietnam view items of the international agenda from a similar standpoint contribute to the rapprochement of the states within international fora.

      Close attention was directed to discussing various aspects of bilateral cooperation within the framework of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). In particular, the parties conversed on the matters of creating a parliamentary dimension within the NAM.