On May 21–23, Saint Petersburg hosted the 165th Bergedorf Round Table organized by the renown German Körber Foundation and Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). The event traditionally gathered the high-ranking politicians, diplomats and leading experts on various aspects of international relations from the EU, Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine.
The Round Table was opened by welcome remarks from Alexey Meshkov, Member of the RIAC Presidium, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Governor of the city of Saint-Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko, First mayor of Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg Olaf Scholz and Member of the Board of Körber Foundation Dr. Thomas Paulsen. The six ensuing sessions of the Round Table were focused on the current state and possible dynamics of Russia-EU relations, including discussing problems of perceptions, existing within Russian and Western political elites and societies; security issues in the common neighborhood, dynamics in Syria and Middle East, as well as the prospects and limits of economic and international cooperation between Russia and the West.
On May 21–23, Saint Petersburg hosted the 165th Bergedorf Round Table organized by the renown German Körber Foundation and Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). The event traditionally gathered the high-ranking politicians, diplomats and leading experts on various aspects of international relations from the EU, Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine.
The Round Table was opened by welcome remarks from Alexey Meshkov, Member of the RIAC Presidium, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Governor of the city of Saint-Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko, First mayor of Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg Olaf Scholz and Member of the Board of Körber Foundation Dr. Thomas Paulsen. The six ensuing sessions of the Round Table were focused on the current state and possible dynamics of Russia-EU relations, including discussing problems of perceptions, existing within Russian and Western political elites and societies; security issues in the common neighborhood, dynamics in Syria and Middle East, as well as the prospects and limits of economic and international cooperation between Russia and the West.
The participants stressed that despite the ongoing crisis in the EU institutions as well as the general alienation between Russia and the West, neither is able to settle the whole complex of international problems alone, which makes it crucial to define the new possible parameters of Russia–EU, Russia–West relations in the short- and mid-term.
