A meeting of Ms Nina Mazay, Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic for Foreign Affairs and National Security, with the delegation of the Republic of Italy

       On 16 January 2009 a meeting of Ms Nina Mazay, Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus for Foreign Affairs and National Security, with the delegation of the Republic of Italy headed by Mr Alfredo Mantika, member of the Senate of the Parliament of Italy, took place in the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus. Mr Anatoly Tolkachev, member of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic for Education, Science, Culture and Social Development, also took part in the meeting.

       The participants exchanged opinions on a wide range of issues of common interest. Ms N.Mazay informed the guests that the Republic of Belarus highly appreciates the steps taken by Italy for the purpose of the development of bilateral interaction in many fields — following the results of 2008 Italy joined the top ten trade partners of our country. Special attention was given to the constructive interaction of Belarusian parliamentarians with their Italian colleagues on bilateral basis as well as during the OSCE PA and PACE activities. She also made a note of the active participation of Italy in establishing the dialogue between the Republic of Belarus and the EU countries and underlined the interest of our country in cooperation within the framework of the Eastern Partnership initiative.

       Mr A.Mantika in his turn stated his support of further intensification of the inter-parliamentary relations of the two countries. In his opinion personal contacts between the members of the parliaments were very important for this process, as well as creation of working groups on cooperation of the legislative bodies and intensification of interaction within the framework of the Parliamentary Dimension of the Central European Initiative. He also noted that cooperation in the spheres of energy, crime control and counter-terrorism was very important for the Republic of Belarus and Italy.

       The sides discussed the questions of bilateral cooperation in the field of education. At the end of the meeting the participants of the meeting expressed their intention to extend Belarusian-Italian inter-parliamentary relations.