Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian upper house, the Federation Council, will pay an official visit to Cuba from November 14-17 to meet with the country's leadership and to take part in celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of the foundation of Havana, the upper house said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th November, 2019) Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian upper house, the Federation Council, will pay an official visit to Cuba from November 14-17 to meet with the country's leadership and to take part in celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of the foundation of Havana, the upper house said on Thursday.
"A delegation of the Federation Council, led by Federation Council head Valentina Matviyenko, will pay an official visit to the Republic of Cuba from November 14-17 ... The program of the visit includes negotiations with the leadership of the Republic of Cuba. A meeting with Esteban Lazo Hernandez, the president of the National Assembly of People's Power, ... is envisioned," the Russian upper house said in a statement.
Russian lawmakers will also take part in the celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of the foundation of Havana as part of their visit, the Federation Council added.
"Russia and Cuba have been and remain true allies and friends. We appreciate the privileged nature of our bilateral cooperation, which is developing steadily and which is not affected by political factors," Matviyenko said, as quoted in the statement.
The delegation includes Constitutional Legislation and State Building Committee Chair Andrey Klishas; Defense and Security Committee Chair Viktor Bondarev; Foreign Affairs Committee chair Konstantin Kosachev; the head of the group on cooperation with the Cuban parliament, Sergey Kalashnikov; and another member of the group, Natalia Kosikhina.
A delegation of the Russian upper house, headed by Matviyenko, last paid an official visit to Cuba in May 2013. Meanwhile, in November 2018 Matviyenko held in Moscow a meeting with Miguel Diaz-Canel, who was then the chairman of the Council of State and became president in October.
