"Trialogue of Dialogues" at SPIEF’2019
The first session of the "Trialogue of Dialogues: St. Petersburg, Sochi, Trianon" is devoted to such mechanisms of bilateral cooperation between Russia and Western countries as the Russian-German St. Petersburg Dialogue, the Russian-French Trianon Dialogue and the Russian-Austrian Sochi Dialogue.
The following co-chairs of the forums outlined the forums’ main tasks and activities: Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC "Gazprom" Viktor Zubkov; Executive Director of the forum "St. Petersburg Dialogue" M. Hoffman; Rector of MGIMO-University Anatoly Torkunov; Ambassador Pierre Morel; Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Andrei Fursenko; Honorary President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, President of the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry Eurochambres C. Leitl. The meeting was moderated by Deloitte CIS partner Ekaterina Trofimova.
V. A. Zubkov emphasized that the Russian-German St. Petersburg Dialogue did not stop its work even in difficult periods. The Dialogue is of great interest to the public of both countries. On July 18, all the forum's working groups including more than 150 people from each side will gather in Bonn. "The very form of dialogue promotes informal human interaction," Hoffman said.
P. Morel reminded the audience that that day was a kind of an anniversary date of the Trianon Dialogue - exactly a year ago, at SPIEF’2018, the meeting of the Coordination Council as well as the meeting with the Presidents of Russia and France, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, took place.
Alexander Fursenko, Co-Chair of the Sochi Dialogue, pointed out, “Humanitarian relations between the two countries not only go along with the development of the economic and political agenda, but also largely determine bilateral relations. Today, perhaps more than ever, interpersonal dialogue, the dialogue of people, is of great importance. And this is also an educational problem, the problem of educating people in the broadest sense of the word. It is not about getting degrees, but about understanding each other better. < ... > Let's remember the FIFA World Cup. <…> It was just a wonderful platform where people saw that in general what they read is not quite what it really is," said Andrey Fursenko.
