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The International Forum "A Joint Answer to Global Challenges – the Path to A Just World" 27 àïðåëÿ 2015 Moscow hosted the International Forum "A joint answer to global challenges – the path to a just world on 27 April. The forum was participated by Sergei Mironov, Chairman of Party A JUST RUSSIA; Nikolai Levichev, Vice-Chairman of the State Duma Chairman, Chairman of the Council of the Chamber of JR party deputies; State Duma deputies; international experts; public and political leaders from 35 countries of the world, including Luis Ayala, Secretary General of the Socialist International; Tiny Kox, Chairman of the "United European Left" group; Zhao Leji, deputy Director of the International Department Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC); Ioannis Burnus, a member of the Political Secretariat of Party Syriza (Greece) for European Policy, International Relations, Foreign Policy & Defense and Greek Diaspora; Igor Dodon, Chairman of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova and others. The Forum opened with a sand installation accompanied by live music. The forum guests saw a sand artist create pictures of war and peace to the sounds of the piano. The artist’s hands were drawing the globe, human faces, and the sky crossed by warplanes. Her fingers were tracing the sand with "shots’ and "explosions", everything was disappearing in a sandy "smoke". Then there was a picture of a temporary peace on the screen that was once again crashed by a nuclear explosion. At the end of the performance, the artist’s fingers drew a pigeon flying above the globe which changed into the emblem of the forum later on. In his speech during the plenary part of the forum, Sergei Mironov emphasized that the Forum was taking place ahead of the remarkable date – the 70th anniversary of the Victory over fascism in World War II. "This is the most significant event for the whole world community. It is titanic efforts and huge human losses of the Soviet people and the armies of the allied powers that provided solid guarantees for a progressive democratic development of modern states and their citizens’ prosperity growth," the JR Chairman explained. "The task of our Forum is discussion of the most urgent issues the world community is facing now: historical lessons and a new architecture of international relations, social-and-economic resources of the future and the climate change, regional conflicts and fighting against international terrorism," he stressed. "Now important global decisions are elaborated not only at the state power structures. The initiatives of civil society representatives are gaining more and more significance. That is why we invited scientists, public leaders, experts and journalists from various countries to the forum," the politician added. In his speech, Socialist International Secretary General Luis Ayala expressed his assurance about the ability of socialist parties to answer modern challenges. At present socialists direct their efforts to reaching peace and agreement as neither political nor economic changes are possible without them. Luis Ayala stressed that at present there are still too many conflicts on our planet, and we can see how the intensity of international terrorism is increasing. He informed the audience about the meeting of socialists from the countries of the post-Soviet territory (held under the aegis of Socintern in Astana) that discussed the ways of solution of the Ukrainian crisis. A lot of the ideas developed at the meeting are in tune with the Minsk agreements welcomed by the Socintern. Ruslan Grinberg, Director of the Institute of Economics of RAS spoke about the actuality of socialist ideas; he also stressed they were essential for criticism of the neoliberal economic model being implemented in our country. Concerning the global problems, the scientist stressed that the multi-polar world a lot of people had been dreaming about failed to become reality. At present we witness growing inequalities, crisis of multiculturalism and democratic institutions throughout the world. Zhou Leji, deputy Director of the International Department Central Committee of CPC voiced the thesis the other speakers repeatedly applied to: inadmissibility of rewriting the history of World War II. He reminded that it had been the territory of the USSR and China where the main combat operations and battles took place, and the peoples of the two countries had committed unfadable acts of courage. Irina Abramova, deputy Director of the Institute for African Studies of RAS represented a new look at appearance of the global centers of attraction and their development. She thinks that in our rapidly changing world, Africa may become the leader of the world growth. It is not by chance that a lot of powers have got involved in the struggle for the resources of this continent. According to Irina Abramova, Africa (with its huge, fast growing population and market) may become some sort of "a magic wand" for our country under the conditions of crisis and sanctions. Asaf Gadjiev, PAOBSEC (Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation), a deputy and a member of the Political Bureau of Parliament of the Azerbaijan Republic drew attention of the Forum participants to the issues of a steady development in the Black Sea region where still exist "the frozen conflicts". According to him, one in ten residents is a refugee in Azerbaijan even now. Asaf Gadjiev also severely criticized the PACE decision to devoid Russia of its right to vote. "To my regret "the divide and rule "principle is still welcomed in many European structures," he explained. Tiny Kox, Chairman of the "United European Left" in PACE was not hiding that he and his colleagues would like to resume cooperation with the Russian parliamentarians who left the Assembly after Russia had been devoid of its voting right at the session. Although a lot of European deputies do not support Russia’s position regarding the Ukrainian crisis, they are unanimous about impossibility to solve the issues of international security without Russia. The parliamentarian also acknowledged that the sanctions imposed against our country were not fruitful. Valery Tsvetkov, Director of the Institute of Problems of Market of RAS called expansion of a primitive "mass culture" as one of the global problems together with ecology and transnational criminality. He also emphasized that aggravation of the competition in global economy is fraught with recurrence of economic nationalism and protectionism. Ioannis Burnus, a member of the Political Secretariat of Party Syriza (Greece) for European Policy, International Relations, Foreign Policy & Defense and Greek Diaspora informed the audience about work of the left-wing government in modern Greece. According to him, the socialist ideas have become extremely popular among people during the crisis. Alexey Gromyko, Director of the Institute of Europe of RAS noted that the attempts to decrease the role of the USSR peoples in fighting against fascism are becoming clumsier and clumsier. "An unbiased approach to the lessons of World War II is becoming a more and more burning problem," the speaker summarized. Nguyen Tuan Phong, deputy Head of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations Department criticized the attempts to rewrite history, including everything connected with the contribution made by the Soviet Union in the victory over fascism. He reminded that the Vietnamese people had suffered greatly from the wars in the XXth century; at the same time he stressed that fraternal help of the USSR is still highly estimated in Vietnam. Petar Kanev, a deputy of the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria (from the Bulgarian Socialist Party) focused attention of the audience on the problem of migration. Quite recently the European community has been shocked by the news about the mass deaths of African migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. According to the official statistics, not less than 25,000 migrants seeking for rescue from poverty in satiated Europe have died since 2000. According to Petar Kanev, about 200-300 refugees come to his country daily. Medardo Gonsales Treho, Secretary General of the Farabundo Marty National Liberation Front, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of El Salvador raised the problem of a just distribution of energy resources in the world. He is sure that revenues from sale of natural resources must be invested in social projects. Igor Dodon, Chairman of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova told the audience about a fruitful cooperation with Party A JUST RUSSIA. He also criticized (as well as a lot of the other speakers) the sanctions against Russia as nothing but politically motivated. He thinks that the conflict in Ukraine is disadvantageous neither for Russia nor for Ukraine or the European Union. Various countries and the world trade suffering from the conflict have to pay for the geopolitical games of the USA. Marcelo Garcia Ruvalcaba, a deputy of the Parliament of the United States of Mexico spoke about a specific character of the migration problems in his country: on the one hand, thousands of his fellow citizens are eager to emigrate to the USA, but on the other hand, an endless stream of migrants from the other Latin America countries is moving through Mexico. In his opinion, the problems of migration must not be the issues of only one state. After the plenary meeting, the Forum participants continued their work in four sections: "Social-and-economic resources of the future. The climate change and the prospects of energy security", "Aggravation of the regional conflicts and the growth of migration as a challenge to the established system of international law", "Fight against international terrorism under the conditions of ideological and religious confrontation and collision of the values in the global world", "The lessons of World War II and search for a new architecture of international relations". Talking about the results of the discussion, Valery Tsvetkov, Director of the Institute of Problems of Market of RAS and the moderator of the section devoted to the social-and-economic resources of the future, the climate change and the prospects of energy security stressed that a radical solution of global problems is prevented by certain states, absence of political will as well as contradictions and inequality between countries. Irina Abramova, deputy Director of the Institute for African Studies of RAS and the moderator of the section which dealt with consideration of the problem of regional conflicts and migration stated that modern migration is a constituent part of internationalization and its scope will grow. This is also a topical issue for the RF which occupies the sixth place for the number of migrants. Irina Abramova is sure that regarding this, the restrictive measures introduced in our country for the newcomers are not sufficient enough. Evgeniy Koxhokin, pro-rector for research (MGIMO) and the moderator of the section on the fight against international terrorism stated that the question how to counteract this evil in the information space is still the main one. Moreover, this question still remains a rhetorical one. Summarizing the results of work of the section devoted to the lessons of World War II, its moderator Alexey Gromyko, Director of the Institute of Europe of RAS said that a lot of the discussion participants had to face the problem how to treat the new terms that appeared during the recent months, for example, "new cold war". According to him, it is necessary to struggle against some distorted interpretations, for example, the idea that the Minsk agreements are just part of the so-called "hybrid war". Alexey Gromyko noted that the discussion had revealed the fact that the Europeans got tired of the Ukrainian crisis, and the attitude to Kiev of the western partners of the RF is getting more sober. In his concluding speech, Nikolai Levichev, Vice-Chairman of the State Duma Chairman, Chairman of the Council of the Chamber of deputies of Party A JUST RUSSIA expressed gratitude to the Forum participants. "It is an important and invaluable experience of a joint work in brainstorming of scientists and active politicians and parliamentarians," he said. "I am sure that realistic people in various countries are absolutely aware of the necessity of such meetings. The risks and dangers in the global world do not turn out to be unidirectional; they are like a boomerang: they strike a lot of countries and continents, involving them in a common process. Once we try to understand one another, once we are able to establish a dialogue and cooperation, and together search for a mutually acceptable solution, we will make a huge, unquestionably important step forward to prevention of catastrophes, conflicts, wars, destructions and human losses."
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