02.07.2023
“Mamayev Kurgan is the place where you can fully feel your personal responsibility for the future of the world,” says the Mayor of Volgograd Andrey Kosolapov to the participants of an international conference
Yesterday, a German city Karlsruhe saw the final of the 13th Conference of German and Russian Partner-Cities which marked the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War with the topic “70 years after the end of the war: the power of inter-municipal contacts.” The Mayor of Volgograd Andrey Kosolapov and an honorary citizen of the hero-city Yury Starovatykh took an active part in its work as members of the official Russian delegation. Final speech by the Mayor of Volgograd at the closing of the conference became a significant moment of the international forum in Karlsruhe. At the request of Russian-speaking German mass media, Andrey Kosolapov gave an interview talking about the prospects of Volgograd’s development as the capital of public diplomacy.
In his speech at the closing of the conference, Andrey Kosolapov elaborated on the history of the international twinning movement – from the twinning of Soviet Stalingrad and British Coventry in 1944 to present days. The Mayor of Volgograd told about the huge international experience accumulated by the world-famous city on the Volga River in more than 70 years. This work resulted in the decision to consolidate the global experience of public diplomacy and to establish in Volgograd a unified center which would further work on these matters.
As emphasized by Andrey Kosolapov, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his visit to Volgograd this year on 7 May supported the proposal of the Governor of Volgograd region Andrey Bocharov to create in Volgograd an area for the development of public diplomacy.
“At present, there is an agreement with Volgograd State University about the establishment of a public (people's) diplomacy center on its platform. We hope that this center will become a popular area of public diplomacy to discuss issues concerning not only Russian municipalities and civil society but also the whole world,” said the Mayor of Volgograd.
Speaking at the closing of the conference, Andrey Kosolapov emphasized the importance of contacts between people from different cities. He noted also that by providing a communication platform for cooperation, Volgograd has nothing in mind but a peaceful dialogue.
“We live in a rather difficult time. Many people have somehow forgotten that the only way of development is a peaceful dialogue. That is why the main task of public diplomacy today is to teach people to talk with each other peacefully. Let them come for this to Volgograd. Let them come at Mamayev Kurgan, see everything with their own eyes and understand what terrible things happened here 70 years ago. Mamayev Kurgan is a special place. Right there, you can strongly feel personal responsibility for the future of the world – said Andrey Kosolapov, concluding his speech.
An honorary citizen of the city-hero Yuri Starovatykh also took part in the conference. His report on the participation of Volgograd in the development of international movement of twinned towns, which was presented in one of the working groups under the name of "70th anniversary of liberation Germany from fascism - the contribution of partnership of cities in mutual understanding and reconciliation", was recognized as one of the best.
The format of the conference, which united more than 600 representatives of government, civil society, economics from Germany and Russia, includes a visit to German partner cities by participants of the forum. Today, at the invitation of the Chief Mayor of Cologne Jürgen Roters, Volgograd delegation arrived in its West German sister city.
The visit of the Volgograd Mayor in Cologne lasted only one and a half days, but the program of it was very replete. The main items on the agenda were cooperation projects to be carried out between the cities in the economic sphere and participation of Cologne in the creation of Volgograd’s Park of sister cities (Cologne had already chosen a land lot in Volgograd and is currently looking into the financial issues connected with its arrangement). Among the meetings’ participants, there was a person already familiar to Volgograd economists: Michael Josipovic, deputy director of the department of economic development of Cologne and attendee of the forum "Political Solutions and Sustainable Territorial Development", which was held in our city in October 2014.
The visit of the Mayor of Volgograd in Germany attracted attention of German journalists. Andrey Kosolapov gave several interviews to the Russian-speaking media in Germany, in which he talked about prospects of development of Volgograd as the capital of public diplomacy.
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