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RUSSIA - FRANCE
T
he Trianon Dialogue, an initiative
that was proposed by the Russian
and French Presidents in
Versailles on 29 May 2017 and officially
launched in December 2017, aims at
strengthening ties between Russian
and French civil societies.
‘We share the wish to create more
intense and more transparent exchan-
ges’,
Emmanuel Macron the President
of France said during the press
conference at Trianon on 29 May 2017.
‘We agree about the need to intensify
exchanges between our young people’
,
stated Vladimir Putin, the President of
the Russian Federation.
‘The first concrete results are the
increased number of meetings, the
facilitation of exchanges and the
preparation of joint projects. We
have already had results, with the
participation of French young people
who are interested in Russia and
who have been invited by Russia to
participate in the World Football
Championship’,
Pierre Morel, the
former Ambassador of France in
Russia and co-president of the
Trianon Dialogue declared to the
Sputnik newspaper on 25 May 2018,
du r i ng t he Sa i n t Pe t e r sbu rg
International Economic Forum.
P i e r r e Mo r e l a n d
Nicolas Chibaeff, the
executive secretary-
general of the Dialogue,
travelled to Moscow on
23 and 24 April 2018.
On this occasion, they
participated in a press
b r i e f i n g w i t h t h e
Russian and French
media to inform them
a b o u t t h e l a t e s t
progress of this joint
initiative by Emmanuel
Macron and Vladimir
Putin.
‘The City of the Future’, the theme of
2018
Morel and Chibaeff reminded the
audience that the annual theme that
had been chosen for the Dialogue in
2018 was the ‘city of the future’ and
stressed that it had already been
debated during various sessions, at
the Gaidar Forum and during MIPIM
in Cannes.
For Anatoly Torkunov, the co-president
of the Trianon Dialogue, these first
meetings at the Gaidar Forum in
January 2018, in Moscow were a
success: ‘There were three hundred
attendees, both French and Russian,
architects and municipal officials.
They actively participated in this ses-
sion, which was dedicated to the city
of tomorrow and town planning. This
made it possible to decide on the
main issues of the project.
The Internet platform dedicated to
the Trianon Dialogue, which is cur-
rently an information portal, must
develop towards a more interactive
tool, especially enabling civil society
to put forward initiatives and find
partners more easily to foster
Franco-Russian projects.
Pierre Morel stressed the importance
of such conferences that bring toge-
ther
‘experts, great professionals
and international figures’
.
‘We have
seen
leading
figures
from
the
Russian side with very innovative
ideas, with really interesting pro-
jects, that have been gradually matu-
red for us. Creative people, and not
only artists, also meet to discuss all
these issues that affect the life of
companies, because there is a very
strong demand’,
he pointed out
during a press conference at the
Saint Petersburg Economic Forum,
(1)
.
In May 2018, the Emmanuel Macron,
the President of France, invited
Johanna Rolland, the socialist mayor
of Nantes, to speak in the framework
of the round table about ‘the city of
tomorrow’.
The two-million-euro operating
budget is allotted by both govern-
ments and there are few civil servants
on the coordination council. The
issuing of visas and the provision of
premises for foreign representations
will also foster these Franco-Russian
exchanges.
Several events that took place in
March 2018 should be highlighted: a
conference about the issue of the
year in Cannes, the launch of the
‘Dialogue’ during the Paris Book Fair
and a round table about Franco-
Russian relations at the Russian
Spiritual Centre in Paris.
In 2019, academic exchanges will be
in the spotlight
A network of Franco-Russian univer-
sities will be set up in 2019, enabling
in-depth ties between universities,
double degrees and exchanges between
Russian and French professors. The
first activity report should be presented
by the end of 2018. Civil society in all
its diversity can have regular exchanges,
participating in the renewal of
Franco-Russian intercultural rela-
tions. This is a way of reinforcing the
initiatives that can be taken in the
diplomatic field.
France and Russia celebrated the 300
th
anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations
in 2017. 2018 is a pivotal year for strengthening their bilateral ties; the Trianon Dialogue can contribute
to this.
The ‘Trianon Dialogue’
before diplomacy
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>
The Trianon.
