Russian-Turkish High-Level Inter-Parliamentary Commission to meet in Moscow in early 2023 - Duma speaker

ANKARA. Dec 13 (Interfax) - The Russian-Turkish High-Level Inter-Parliamentary Commission will meet in Moscow in early 2023 with the participation of Turkish National Assembly Speaker Mustafa Sentop, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said after meeting with Sentop in Ankara on Tuesday.

"We have agreed with our colleague, the speaker, that a meeting of the high-level commission established by our parliaments will be held during his visit to Russia at the beginning of next year," Volodin said.

The parliaments will start to prepare for the meeting right away so that they can "discuss items on the current agenda that concern our citizens and promote the development of relations between our states," he said.

The coronavirus pandemic has not only harmed public health and national economies, it "has also done a lot of damage to inter-parliamentary communication," Volodin said. "First and foremost, the pandemic stopped the operation of dialogue platforms. Communication in our friendship groups and other formats shifted to a different mode, but no matter how modern communication systems are, they are still unable to substitute for in-person contacts. [...] So, we will try to implement the new format [commission meeting] as soon as possible to fill the pause created in our relations by the pandemic," he said.