Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aeron Mike Oquaye, has joined other delegates from across 131 countries at a three-day parliamentary conference in Moscow.

About 800 delegates are attending the meeting, aimed at discussing legislative support for trade, economic and humanitarian cooperation.

Additionally, it is providing the platform for exchange of parliamentary experience.

The Chairman of Russia’s State Duma, Viacheslav Volodin, opened the conference together with the Chairperson of the Federation Council (Senate), Valentina Matvyenko, and Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergey Lavrov.

According to the organizing committee, the last day would be exclusively devoted to the discussion of effective ways of strengthening Russia-African relations - explore business opportunities in Africa.

Leonid Slutskiy, Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs, said it was important that the third day would be entirely devoted to cooperation with African countries.

It would for sure serve as a precursor of the Russia-Africa summit, to be held in Sochi on October 24–26.

Prof Oquaye, who was welcome on arrival by Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, Irina Yarovaya said “it's very important for us to do everything possible to strengthen the already existing political links."

"That's why we are here today. In the first place, the exchange of the inter-parliamentary delegations vividly reflects the role both parliaments can play in raising the level of cooperation between Ghana and Russia."

He added that the idea to re-enforce political links and work vigorously towards long-term bilateral relationships stemmed from the fact that both countries stood to mutually benefit.

The Speaker of the National Assembly of Zimbabwe, Jacob Mudenda, said "it is important that the event will focus on Russia and Africa in order to develop interaction between parliaments".

Patrick Matibini, Speaker of the National Assembly of Zambia, expressed the hope that "this conference will indeed be a continuation of our relationship."

Ahead of the meeting, Volodin, said "strengthening relations with African countries, including humanitarian, trade and economic cooperation, is one of the priorities”.

The development of inter-parliamentary relations should intensify cooperation between our countries."

"We propose to move from intentions to concrete steps, and our peoples will better understand each other through parliamentary relations. It is necessary to take certain steps together to work on the African continent," Volodin added.