MOSCOW. March 29 (Interfax) - Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and the Speaker of Zimbabwe's Senate, Mabel Chinomona, discussed steps to promote cooperation between the two countries' parliaments at a meeting on Wednesday.
"All the achievements as part of cooperation between our countries are developing today thanks to good relations and continuous dialogue between the leaders of our states. But we also need to build relations at the inter-parliamentary level on a systemic basis," the State Duma's website quoted Volodin as saying at the meeting.
As it promotes relations with other countries, Russia is always guided by the principles of reciprocity, friendship, respect, mutually beneficial cooperation and non-interference in independent states' internal, sovereign affairs, he said.
"Our countries have never built relations based on any money-focused principles. There has always been assistance to each other in various situations," Volodin said.
Chinomona, for her part, said that relations between the two countries have their roots in Soviet times, when the Soviet Union supported Zimbabwe in its struggle for independence.
"For me, the support that you, your government have been extending to African countries is like a breath of fresh air," she said.