State Duma approves Russian Foreign Ministry's activity
MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - The State Duma approved the work of the Russian Foreign Ministry headed by Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.
"The Russian Foreign Ministry's activity to ensure national interests and implement Russian strategic national priorities is approved," the State Duma said in a decree adopted on the basis of the outcomes of a governmental hour involving Lavrov on Wednesday.
The minister spoke before deputies and answered questions asked by the factions on the pressing issues of the agenda.
Summing up the outcomes of the governmental hour, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said: "All the factions highly appreciated the activity of the Foreign Ministry and the minister at his post."
"In complicated geopolitical conditions the Russian Foreign Ministry is effectively coordinating the activity of the federal bodies of the executive branch of power in international relations and international cooperation," State Duma international affairs committee's chairman Leonid Slutsky (LDPR) said regarding the Russian Foreign Ministry's activity.
In turn, State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy (United Russia) said at the discussion referencing the Davos forum's outcomes that Russia's status has not changed on the international arena.
"And as they do not have a developed culture of toasts, it is necessary to entertain guests somehow; they suggested all participants to the forum making a forecast of political and economic development of the situation in the world in 2017. The word 'Russia' existed in all the forecasts which were voiced at this event," Tolstoy said.
"Thus, the position of our country has changed, Russia has firmly taken its place in the heads of our foreign partners; but quite recently it has been quite far from it," the parliamentarian, who sees a great merit of the ministry led by Lavrov, also said.
The State Duma "will always give a shoulder to our Foreign Ministry in the field of parliamentary diplomacy," the deputy speaker said.