On March 31, RIAC Director General Andrey Kortunov met Bernardo Venturi, Chief for Foreign Relations of the Association Rondine Cittadella della Pace (Toscana, Italy), and its employees Stefano Marilnelli and Mauro D’Andrea.
The Italian guests pointed out that their Association was working hard to strengthen the cultural dialogue between students in politically unstable regions including the Middle East, the Balkans, Northern Caucasus and Africa in order to assist conflict settlement through their cooperation.
On March 31, RIAC Director General Andrey Kortunov met Bernardo Venturi, Chief for Foreign Relations of the Association Rondine Cittadella della Pace (Toscana, Italy), and its employees Stefano Marilnelli and Mauro D’Andrea.
The Italian guests pointed out that their Association was working hard to strengthen the cultural dialogue between students in politically unstable regions including the Middle East, the Balkans, Northern Caucasus and Africa in order to assist conflict settlement through their cooperation.
Dr. Kortunov focused on RIAC's interaction with Italian international centers and NGOs in view of Italy's upcoming EU presidency. He also talked about RIAC's participation in preparation of an international conference on cooperation of Russian and Italian think tanks and civil society groups, which enjoy the right to suggest the government bodies long-term decisions in contrast to official structures that have to seek immediate responses. The NGOs, both Russian and Italian, may also openly criticize domestic and foreign policies of their countries and at the same time advise new development guidelines.
Mr. Venturi described the Association's role in strengthening Russian-Italian cooperation through training Russian students and advancement of interaction techniques within the global students' community, as well as on the significance of bilateral contacts for development of Russian and Italian civil societies.
The sides agreed on several subject areas to be later approved for advancement jointly by Russian and Italian civil society groups, among them demography and migration, environmental protection and human rights.
Dr. Kortunov suggested RIAC for coordination purposes in preparation of the conference on cooperation between Russian and Italian think tanks and civil society institutions, and has enlisted the guests' support for negotiations on selection of Italian think tanks and NGOs for the future conference.
The meeting was also attended by RIAC Program Coordinator Tatiana Bogdasarova.
