MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. The Trianon Dialogue forum can be an essential element of cooperation between the Russian and French peoples now that the organizational issues have been resolved, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting of the forum’s Coordination Council.
"I am confident that now that you have resolved all organizational issues with the assistance of our countries’ government, the Trianon Dialogue has everything necessary for becoming the key and truly cementing element of Russian-French inter-societal cooperation," Lavrov noted.
According to Russia’s top diplomat, the forum’s objectives are to develop a positive Russian-French agenda and create an additional platform for contacts.
"The more often the Russians and the French communicate with each other, the more impartial their notion of how our societies live will be. I believe the French and all other fans’ impressions of Russian hospitality during the FIFA World Cup are the best evidence," he went on to say. "As a result of more frequent, stable contacts at a human level, there will be fewer excuses and pretexts for various speculations and attempts to make our relations more complicated by means of artificial problems."
"Let me also mention here what we call science diplomacy, when historians can discuss together the most ambiguous pages of our common history and, in general, the ambiguous pages of European history for the benefit of today," Lavrov added.
He also stressed the need for young people’s involvement in the forum’s work and assured its participants that the Russian Foreign Ministry was prepared to actively support the Trianon Dialogue.
The minster also stressed that Moscow and Paris are trying to find common language on cybersecurity issues. "It seems to me that the Trianon Dialogue, that was devised to build bridges, seek common approaches to very different problems facing our nationals, could discuss the issue of access to information, cooperation in ensuring security in different spheres, including cybersecurity," he said.
"We are also establishing a dialogue with our French colleagues on this issue, which mars relations of Russia and the West due to the reaction of certain politicians," the minister said.
Lavrov said that undoubtedly the issue of information security deserves attention not only of the countries, although they shoulder the main responsibility for cybersecurity, but also of nationals, as it directly involves their rights as to access to news and analysis.
According to Lavrov, information confrontation within the framework of the anti-Russian campaign imposed on the European countries has acquired the scope necessitating moves "to advance detente".
"We are specifically concerned about attempts to discriminate certain media outlets, regulate access of nationals to information resources by state structures, including legislatively and through international initiatives advanced outside the framework of universal structures, such as the United Nations, the OSCE, the Council of Europe," he pointed out.
"I hope very much that these obvious moves that don't help in ensuring the freedom of speech, won’t end up with something like political censorship. I hope very much that the civil societies of our countries won’t see obstacles in access to information," Lavrov summed up.