MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. The forum of civil societies Trianon Dialogue will hold a series of events within the framework of the big Paris Peace Forum on November 11-13, aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two countries, and also — between the West and the East.
Two round tables will be the central events of the agenda — The Art of Dialogue. Dialogue of the Arts and Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future: 30-Year Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The first one is intended to reveal the role of cultural institutions in the political and diplomatic dialogue between Russia and France. Over the centuries, the art and culture of the two countries had a strong influence on each other, which certainly could not but affect the way Moscow and Paris had conducted diplomacy before and how they do it at present.
Participants in the round table The Art of Dialogue. Dialogue of the Arts on November 12 will include the French Minister of Culture Frank Riester, the director of the A. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts Marina Loshak, the Minister of Culture and Social Development of the United Arab Emirates, Nura al-Kaabi, famous art collector Thomas Kaplan.
Discussions about the consequences of the fall of the Berlin Wall and its role for the modern world will be held on November 12-13. A conference is scheduled for November 12 at the HEIP School of International Relations. The round table on the sidelines of the Peace Forum will take place the next day. The list of participants includes diplomatic advisers to French President Francois Mitterrand, who led the country in the year the wall fell — Jean Musitelli and Hubert Vedrine, professor emeritus at Columbia University, director of the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative Robert Legvold, president of the World Association of Russian Press Vitaly Ignatenko, editor of the Petersburg Dialogue newspaper Victor Loshak, Executive Secretary of the Trianon Dialogue, Russia's Former Ambassador to France Alexander Orlov.
November 9 is considered as the date of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the symbols of the Cold War. The wall was erected in 1961 at the initiative of the head of the German Democratic Republic, Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973) against the background of a massive outflow of labor and young specialists to West Germany. However nowadays armed groups are once again building up in Europe, Russia and the US are facing serious contradictions, and with the INF Treaty collapse, the is a threat of deploying this type of weapons in Europe once again. These global similarities and differences before the fall of the wall are expected to be discussed by the delegates at the forum.
Work and recreation
On November 13, a meeting of the Coordination Council of the Trianon Dialogue will be held at the French Foreign Ministry, where further plans for the development of Russian-French social cooperation will be hashed over. MGIMO rector Anatoly Torkunov and French diplomat Pierre Morel (the co-chairs), as well as two executive secretaries — diplomats Alexander Orlov and Nicolas Shibaev — head the Council. Overall the council consists of 30 people — 15 French and 15 Russians. The participants will hold a series of working meetings during the forum.
During the Trianon Dialogue in Paris, there will also be film screenings: the participants will see the premiere of “In Memory of Jacques Chirac” and “MGIMO. In All Languages of the World”. The program will open on November 11 with a performance by the Theodore Currentzis choir in the Paris church of Saint Louis en L'Ile.
The contact with the young generation
One of the important projects of the Trianon Dialogue targets the youngest audience — schoolchildren, who are invited to compete in writing creative letters on the philosophical and ethical issues related man's interaction with artificial intelligence. The contest encourages to develop children's interest in science and strengthen the ties of the young generations of Russia and France. The project is dubbed Dear Tomorrow. The conference dedicated to its launch will be held on November 12.
The event's program at the Paris Peace Forum also includes a gala dinner of the Choiseul100.Russia project. This is a joint project with the French analytical center Choiseul Institute aimed at searching for talented young people under 40, whose work ensures the modernization of Russia's economy. The Choiseul Institute has been working on a similar list since 2013, and has been making the Russian one only since 2019. It is assumed that in the future it will be possible to create a network of contacts between the economic leaders of the two countries based on those lists.
About the dialogue
Russian and French presidents Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron discussed the idea of creating the French-Russian Trianon Dialogue in Versailles in May 2017. The first formal meeting of the Coordination Council with the participation of the two presidents was held at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2018. The dialogue aims at developing ties between youth, business and cultural circles.