In the meeting, the officials deemed the cooperation between the Sate Duma and National Assembly excellent, adding that there was room to further strengthen the relations between the two parliaments through more frequent contacts and meetings between friendship groups. The two sides agreed to intensify cooperation, particularly as regards utilizing all the potentials offered by the Free Trade Agreement between Serbia and the Russian Federation which enables Serbian exporters to be 20% more competitive on the Russian market.

Nenad Popovic stressed that Serbia is the only European country to have such an agreement with the Russian Federation, which is of considerable help to the Serbian economy. He particularly emphasised the fact that Serbia will soon make a decision on granting the South Stream gas pipeline the status on national project. He also stressed that the fact that Serbia respects the decision on the declaration of Serbia’s military neutrality is especially important. Popovic thanked the Russian Federation for the exceptional assistance to Serbia’s efforts to preserve Kosovo-Metohija. He also thanked Russia for its assistance in countering the consequences of last summer’s forest fires, especially the Serbian-Russian Emergency Centre in Nis.

In the meeting, Leonid Kalashnikov stressed that all four of the political parties in the State Duma have a friendly attitude toward Serbia and are ready to work toward furthering the overall relations with Serbia. This means, first of all, strengthening economic, as well as cultural and educational cooperation. Kalashnikov thanked the members of the National Assembly’s delegation to the Council of Europe PA who had endorsed several resolutions proposed by the Russian members of the PACE.

The meeting was also attended by MPs Dusica Morcev, Bojana Bozanic and Aleksandar Pejcic of the Democratic Party of Serbia – Vojislav Kostunica Parliamentary Group.