Russian, U.S. lawmakers agree to maintain contact - Slutsky
MOSCOW. Feb 23 (Interfax) - Parliamentarians of Russia and the United States have agreed to maintain contact and exchanged their telephone numbers and e-mail addresses during a an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) session in Vienna, according to Leonid Slutsky, head of the Duma international affairs committee.
"The suddenly constructive and concrete course of a discussion [with U.S. counterparts] shows that we could, without utopias, resume inter-parliamentary cooperation between Russia's Federal Assembly and U.S. Congress in the very near future. We exchanged our cell phones, electronic mail addresses, agreed on contacts," the deputy was quoted by his press office as saying.
The OSCE PA winter session opened in Vienna on Thursday.
This was a first meeting between Russian and U.S. lawmakers at the OSCE PA in three years, Slutsky said. "Participating on the U.S. side were ten senators and members of the House of Representatives. The tone of the discussion was very constructive," he said.
The Russian side suggested setting up an inter-parliamentary working group or a working committee on the problem of international terrorism, Slutsky said
"This is the issue where we must cooperate. As part of work in this format in future we could proceed to other issues concerning the bilateral agenda and international cooperation. I hope a format will be devised in the foreseeable future that would allow [us] to re-launch the mechanism of parliamentary interaction between Russia and the U.S.," Slutsky said.