MGIMO Rector at Paris Peace Forum

MGIMO Rector at Paris Peace Forum

13 November 2018

November 11th—13th, the first Paris Peace Forum is being held in Paris. A delegation from MGIMO University led by its Rector Anatoly Torkunov is participating in the main events.

The forum was kicked off by French President Emmanuel Macron. During the plenary session, the heads of the states that participated in the First World War, including President Vladimir Putin, addressed the audience.

Our Rector presented a project entitled «Civil Dialogue in times of Crisis» and explained the different ways to maintain and restore bilateral relations in difficult times. Anatoly Torkunov illustrated his point with the examples of the Russian-French civil society forum the Trianon Dialogue, the Committee on Complicated Issues in the History of Russian-Japanese Relations, the Russian-Czech Discussion Forum and the Russian-Polish Group for Difficult Issues. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and former Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine attended the session.

November 12th, on the platform of the Trianon Dialogue, a discussion session was organized on the role played by civil societies in diplomacy: «Bringing back Diplomatic Trust: a role for civil societies». The Co-Chairmen of the Trianon Dialogue, MGIMO Rector Anatoly Torkunov and Ambassador Pierre Morel gave a talk about the goals of the forum and the different projects being implemented. Prominent members of the international academic community, politicians, experts and businessmen all contributed to the work of the session. That day, Anatoly Torkunov also acted as the moderator of a session «Diplomacy: Old Art & New Practices». The guests actively participated in discussions regarding second track diplomacy.

— See the MGIMO web-site for more photos and russian version