OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2011. Dmitry Medvedev and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress Wu Bangguo discussed, in particular, development of Russian-Chinese inter-parliamentary relations.

The meeting took place at Skolkovo International School of Management, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Mr Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress Wu Bangguo, it is a pleasure to welcome you to Russia.

The last time we met was in Beijing. The venue for our meeting is symbolic too in its way: it is a symbol of our countries’ development and a symbol of the changes that are always needed to ensure steady progress.

I hope your visit, the latest in the regular contacts we maintain, will open up a new stage in the development of inter-parliamentary relations between our countries.

Our relations are distinguished by their high intensity, with meetings and contacts taking place at all levels. I take this opportunity to ask you to pass on my best wishes to the President of the People’s Republic of China and convey my hopes that we will continue our contacts very soon.

Once again, I am very happy to see you.

CHAIRMAN OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE CHINESE NATIONAL PEOPLE’S CONGRESS WU BANGGUO (re-translated): Thank you very much for these warm words, Mr President, and thank you for finding the time to meet with my colleagues and I today.

I am particularly happy to have this chance to meet with you today at Skolkovo, Russia’s ‘Silicon Valley’. Indeed, each of our meetings is always a real pleasure.

First of all, I want to pass on President of China Hu Jintao’s warmest greetings and best wishes. His state visit to Russia in June this year was very successful.

Together, you outlined a plan for developing Russian-Chinese relations over the coming decades. China considers that this visit produced very valuable results.

I agree completely with your assessment of the state of our bilateral relations. As you know, this year marks ten years since the signing of the Agreement [on Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation] between our countries. Our relations have undergone great development over this decade.

In the political sphere, our countries always follow a strategic, long-term and macro-scale approach to developing our bilateral relations.