Panel Discussion “Intermunicipal Organizations and City Diplomacy Today”

On Monday, October 31, 2022, the panel discussion “Intermunicipal Organizations and City Diplomacy Today” took place online as part of the International Forum of Public Diplomacy and was moderated by Secretary General of UCLG-Eurasia Rasikh Sagitov. The city of Volgograd has traditionally been the platform for the Forum.

The participants of the session discussed the significance of the city diplomacy in current conditions and the role of intermunicipal organizations in its development, as well as the impact of global changes on the intermunicipal cooperation organizations’ activities and their priorities in ensuring international partnerships of municipalities. The discussion was attended by representatives of local governments associations from Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

“In the Eurasia Region, over the past decades intermunicipal organizations fostering the establishment of contacts between cities, their governments and thanks to which many municipalities have gained the importance in the international arena, have formed. Eurasia municipalities have a rich history of intermunicipal cooperation”, Rasikh Sagitov stressed. “The city diplomacy is of great magnitude in the modern context, and it may especially be of greater significance today, when states at times cannot find a common language. Anyway, one day such a condition in the world will cease, and there will again be an aspiration for cooperation. Then it will be essential that we, despite everything, preserve relationships between our partners in different parts of the world”.

At the beginning of the discussion, the participants were presented video greetings of Mayor of Volgograd, President of the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities, Vice-President of the International Association “Sister Cities”, Vice-President of the International Assembly of Capitals and Major Cities of CIS Vladimir Marchenko and Vice-President of the China International Friendship Cities Association Yuan Mindao.

The participants of the discussion were Director of the Union of Local Self-Governments of the Kyrgyz Republic Bekturgan Orozbaev (Kyrgyzstan), Head of the People’s Congress of Kazakhstan Local Communities Erkinbek Rakimbaev (Kazakhstan), Executive Vice-President of the International Association “Sister Cities” Sergey Paromonov, Deputy Director General of the International Assembly of Capitals and Major Cities of CIS Yury Vasyunkin, Director General of the Union of Russian cities Aleksandra Ignatyeva, Executive Director of the Association of Volga Region Cities Vladimir Reprintsev (Russia).

It is important to note that Volgograd is the founder of the international movement of twin cities, and it is rightfully considered one of the centers of public diplomacy. The Forum “Dialogue on the Volga” has been held in Volgograd annually since 2014 and is dedicated to World Cities Day (celebrated on October 31).

31.10.2022

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