20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum opened in St. Petersburg on Thursday. UNSG Mr. Ban Ki-moon was among the inauguration speakers. He made an urgent entreaty to countries to address climate change, while hailing the Russians for their participation in Paris meeting on environment and their commitment to issues of the climate change.
Mr. Ban highlighted eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the UN which was expected to be implemented by 50 years from now and included ethnic conflict, gender inequality, among a host of other things. He also emphasized upon economic integration and regional cooperation to solve issues where Mr. Ban believed the EU would play an important role. The international community should cooperate in more serious manner to achieve sustainable development goals.
UNSG then turned to Middle East and the ongoing crises in the region ensuring his full support for coalition fighting ISIL and other terrorists in Iraq and Syria. Mr. Ban emphasized also on the role of civil societies, recommending the local governments to work with these societies in frameworks informed with cooperation and mutual understanding. His recommendation also included the media where he demanded that political pressures of vested interests should not undermine the role of media across the countries.
A second opening speaker was President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker. He told the forum that some in the EU would oppose his participation in the event, however, this participation was a personal commitment and idea and common sense. Mr. Juncker believed that countries should recognize differences in policies as natural to political community; however, “they should follow common objectives,” he added.
On the critiques levelled against the EU and its conduct, he said that the EU was not the only player to address all issues and nor was it a sole originator of political problems in the world.
Guinean President Alpha Condé was the third to address the opening day of the forum. He focused on Ebola virus which took a heavy toll on western African countries including his country, and expressed gratitude for Russia and other charity organizations across the globe to help with finding a way out of the crisis and eradicating the virus. He announced an ambitious plan of being the continent’s largest exporter of oil, and voiced his country’s opposition to intervention in Libya. “As we predicted, in Libya, foreign intervention only brought about large exports of weapons into the country, with warring factions easily having secure access to weapons, with deteriorating security situation in the country,” he added.
“The west has been viewing Africa a place for making profit by selling weapons to factions roaming the continent freely. But they have ignored continent's more chronic maladies such as economy, poverty, unemployment, etc. the Europeans should contribute positively to continent’s development through brining in investments in a framework which addresses mutual interests of both sides. Only in that condition would unemployment problem be solved and less and less young people will have chance not to be recruited by terrorist and fundamentalist circles,” Mr. Condé emphasized.
St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is underway June 16-18. Among the important topics are European sanctions against Russia, post-sanctions Iran, Russian ties with Asian rising powers such as India and China, and small-, medium-, and large-sized enterprises.
SH/HRGH