19 July 2019
July 18th –19th, the 18th St. Petersburg Dialogue Forum unfolded in Bonn. This year, the forum was dedicated to “Cooperation As the Keynote of a Peaceful Life in Europe: The Contributions of the Civil Societies of Russia and Germany”.
During the opening ceremony, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his German counterpart Heiko Maas, the Prime Minister of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet, the Governor of Kaliningrad Region Anton Alikhanov, and the Co-Chairs of the forum Viktor Zubkov and Ronald Pofalla welcomed the guests.
MGIMO’s Vice-Rector for Research and Professor at the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Russia Evgeny Kozhikin and the Head of the European Law School, Mark Entin participated in the “Politics” section. The Researcher of the Laboratory of International Trends Analysis Artem Sokolov contributed to the work of the section on “Mass Media”.
In the course of the forum, the speakers underlined the importance of maintaining a constructive dialogue between Russia and Germany, as it is the only way of solving international security issues, and encouraging global economic growth and intercultural interaction. Participants also remarked that over the past few years, in spite their disagreements, Moscow and Berlin managed to find new areas for effective interaction. An important topic discussed at the forum was the possibility of visa facilitation between the two countries.
As the Forum came to a close, the winners of the Peter Bönish prize were congratulated. On the Russian side, the prize was awarded to Artem Sokolov, Researcher at MGIMO’s Laboratory of International Trends Analysis, for his publication on Russian-German relations and the foreign policy of Germany.
— See the MGIMO web-site for russian version
