Department for External Church Relations
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International conference on 90th anniversary of Peace of Riga and a meeting of Russian-Polish group for complex issues
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An international conference on Russia, Poland and Europe: From War to Peace, planned to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the Peace of Riga concluded between Russia and Poland 1921 with Latvia’s mediation, was held on June 2, 2011, in the capital of Latvia.
The conference, which met at the Chernogolovs’ House in Riga, was attended by scholars and researchers from the two countries, governmental officials and public figures. The Department for External Church Relations was represented by Rev. Sergiy Zvonarev, DECR secretary for the far- abroad countries.
The participants were welcomed by Mr. Andris Teikmanis, Latvia’s State Secretary of Foreign Ministry. Messages of greeting were brought by Russian Academy of Science’s Academician A. Torkunov and Poland’s former foreign minister Prof. A. Rotfeld.
Presentations were made on the place and role of the Peace of Riga in the history of Russia and Poland and its importance for the relations between Central and Eastern European countries before World War II. Various points of view were expressed in the discussion that followed in the awareness of the need, though, to reflect on historical events in relations between the two nations in the way that helps to strengthen them both in the present and in the future.
During the conference there was a presentation of the book by Prof. Jerzy Borzecki, Canada, «The Soviet-Polish Peace of 1921 and the Creation of Interwar Europe».
Before the conference on June 1, there was a regular meeting of the Russian-Polish Group for Complex Issues chaired by Academician Torkunov and Prof. Rotfeld. Among the items on the agenda were possible areas for the work of Russian and Polish centers for dialogue and harmony. According to the participants, the efforts to institutionalize dialogue between the two countries, which have found their expression, among other bodies, in the Group for Complex Issues, are very much called for and have aroused a great public interest.
The decision to set up a Russian-Polish Group for Complex Issues was made on the highest governmental level in 2002. Its first members met already in 2005. The first meeting of the chairmen of the renewed group took place on February 1-2, 2008. It defined its membership, issues to be discussed, discussion procedures and frequency of the meetings. Today the group includes historians, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, diplomats, lawyers and representatives of investigative authorities and archives.
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