China, Russia seek closer legislative ties Zhang Dejiang (L), chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- China and Russia pledged Monday to strengthen cooperation between the two countries' legislative bodies. The commitment came during top Chinese legislator Zhang Dejiang's official visit on Sept. 22-25 at the invitation of Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council, and Sergei Naryshkin, chairman of the State Duma. Meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said China and Russia were each other's most important strategic partners. He said Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Russia during his maiden foreign tour as president, during which the leaders of the two countries jointly decided the direction for China-Russia relations in a new era as well as key areas of cooperation. Recalling the recent consensus reached by Xi and Putin at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Zhang said his current visit was aimed at implementing the consensus at the legislative level and translating the high-level advantage of bilateral political ties into more cooperation. Putin agreed with Zhang's remarks, saying Russia and China were real strategic coordination partners, and relations between the two countries and cooperation between the two legislative bodies were growing fast. Hailing the two sides' close cooperation in international affairs, Putin said it had vigorously advanced the progress of addressing major international issues and exerted positive influence on the development of the international situation. Russia had a firm desire to further deepen the strategic cooperation. Putin said cooperation between the two legislative bodies had created a favorable environment for promoting bilateral state-to-state ties and he hoped the two legislative bodies wold make a greater contribution to maintaining the high-level relations between the two countries.