The First G8 Youth Summit in St. Petersburg
The main objectives of the summit included the involvement of youth in the process of expressing ideas about the current situation in the world, identifying the problems interesting for young people, reporting this information to those who are responsible for the fate of the world now, search for alternative ways to address pressing issues of our time, forecasting situation in the future, culturing the necessary skills in young people: from the ability to communicate with other cultures to the sense of responsibility for the future of the world. That is why the Summit participants met criteria such as representativeness (as they should represent both the youth of the world, and the youth of their own country), competence and professionalism (mainly the Summit was attended by students and young professionals with appropriate education and necessary training on specific agendas) and legitimacy (the maximum number of young people was informed about the Summit, and selection was carried out objectively to all candidates, taking into account the fact that they were supposed to represent the opinions of their peers).The Summit was attended by 66 people representing the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, Russia, USA, France, Japan and the EU. They served as such officers as Heads of State and Government, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Education / Social Security, Energy / Economics, Finance, and the Sherpas.
The work on the Summit began in the late spring 2005, during the summer — early autumn the League team worked on the dissemination of information about the Summit and the search for partners, and in the autumn the organizers were able to select the best candidates. Then began a new phase of training — the future Summit participants were engaged in a detailed study of the issues on their agenda, and the preparation of their positions, which would have to reflect the current situation and knowledge of the roots of the problem, the official position of their country and their own opinion as a representative of the youth. Thus, conditions were created in order to find alternative but realistic solutions to current problems. At this time, the team led the League of thorough work for the participants stay in St. Petersburg.
Of course, the culmination of all work related to the Summit was the week of 3 to 9 April 2006 — exactly during these 7 days the youth managed to hold meeting, to solve the tasks set before them, after all, to have a little rest. During the Summit, the work was built on the principle of ministerial meetings of groups, each of which has worked diligently to find solutions to their agenda. Moreover, the plenary sessions were held — the solemn ones, dedicated, for example, to the opening or closing of the Summit and held in the Mariinsky Palace in St. Petersburg; and working sessions on projects where the groups represented its resolutions, discussed and accepted it. In the course of several meetings before the participants performed well-known public figures and politicians, leading experts in various areas covered at the Summit. It is worth noting the cultural program, which allowed foreign participants to get acquainted with the unique spirit of St. Petersburg and the Russian culture in general, as well as closer to communicate with each other.
The solemn finale of the Summit was the signing of the G8 Youth Summit Communiqué held on April 7 in the Mariinsky Palace. It reflected all the thoughts, suggestions and expectations of today’s youth, related to those matters about which the participants were thinking during the previous six months, and discussed in person in the course of this busy week.
At the closing ceremony Director of International Festival of Arts «MASTER CLASS», Tamara Semenova addressed to the delegates and guests of the event. She spoke about the exciting joint initiative of the «Master Class» and International Youth Diplomacy League. Each of the delegations was proposed to draw a picture. For about an hour each delegation was creating a picture of the future world with paint and brush on one canvas. The result was the original and completely different works reflecting the view of the young politicians on the future world order. It turned out that the G8 Youth Delegates are not only well versed in international issues, but also have creative abilities and creativity and not afraid to express their views on the future development of the world through art. This is clearly demonstrated by their pictures. Each work is a unique collective creation, which reflected not only the idea of an ideal future world, expressed through colors, symbols and allegories, but also the national colors of each country.
However, with the signing of the Communiqué work of our participants has not ended. The idea of holding the Summit was so much liked by the youth that it was decided to hold it every year along with the actual G8 Heads of the State meetings. So, now our German colleagues are working on the G8 Youth Summit in Germany next spring. From the other hand, many delegations treated the task of informing the powerful of the world about the Summit’s decisions very seriously and now are working on it. For example, the Russian delegation has already passed the Communiqué to the State Duma Leaders and the German team has met with the Minister of Education of Germany. Now we are looking forward to the Youth Summit in Germany, we recommend all interested persons to participate in it, and wish the organizers success.
Our Partners
The G8 Youth Summit organized by the League was held with the support of the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg Government, Government of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Committee on Youth Policy and Interaction with NGOs, the Council of Rectors of St. Petersburg.
The partners of the League were the Consulate General of Japan in St. Petersburg, Consulate General of Germany in St. Petersburg and the Robert Bosh Stiftung Foundation, the Consulate General of France in St. Petersburg, the French Institute, the French University College in St. Petersburg, the British Consulate General in St. Petersburg The British Council, the Canadian Consulate General, Consulate General of Italy, the company British Petroleum.
International Youth Diplomacy League is very grateful to these organizations.
The agenda and the structure of delegation
Each delegation consisted of members occupying the following positions:
- Head of State (for Russia, the USA, France) and of governments (UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan,),
- Minister of Foreign Affairs,
- Minister of Defence,
- Minister Internal Affairs,
- Minister of Education / Social Development,
- Minister of Energy / Economy,
- Minister of Finance,
- Sherpas.
The agenda presented by the participants included the following questions:
- The Heads of State / Government: Non-violence — the global concept of the global community.
- The Ministers of Foreign Affairs: Positive and negative aspects of the democratization of the East. The Impact on the settlement of conflicts in the region.
- The ministers of defense: the universal problem of demilitarization. Limiting the spread of conventional weapons. Creating a nuclear-free zone in Southeast Asia.
- The ministers of energy / economy: Energy safety. Exhaustible energy resources. The development of alternative energy sources. Safety of nuclear facilities, nuclear waste disposal.
- Ministers of Finance: The idea of unification and the equitable distribution of resources. The program of economic aid to Africa. Stimulating economic growth. Targeted financial support for health programs supply of a vital resource.
- Ministers of Internal Affairs: Drug trafficking — a threat to international security. Border control. The destruction of centers of production and distribution of drugs.
- Ministers of Education: Issues of development of education systems. Establishing common standards in education. Access to education for the population. Improving the quality of education.
- Sherpa: technical and analytical support of the team.
Participants
The Summit was attended by 66 young professionals from leading universities of 8 countries. They represented the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, Russia, the United States, France, Japan and the European Union. In addition, each participant presented precisely the country from which he arrived (in large part this is the meaning of the Youth Summit — in the view of young people of their own country), and was an expert in areas such as global politics, economics, international law and. etc. (making their judgments, and thus, decisions made at the Summit were the most competent).
The British delegation
- Jennifer Rachael Harris — The Prime Minister
- Iasonas Kasselakis – Minister of Foreign Affairs
- William Breame – Minister of Defence
- Sara Collinson – Minister of Energy
- Precious Chatterje-Taylor – Minister of Finance
- Elizabeth McKinnell – Minister of Internal Affairs
- Kainde Aisha Manji – Minister of Social Development
- Ekaterina Akoulinitcheva – Sherpa
The Delegation of the European Union
- Joanne Hoban – European Commission President
- Alice Emily Carter – EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy
The Delegation of Germany:
- Katrin Hünemörder – Federal Chancellor
- Maximilian Kall – Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Moritz H‘lawatscheck – Minister of Defence
- Christian Beilborn – Minister of Energy
- Björn Richter – Minister of Finance
- Max Middeke – Minister of Internal Affairs
- Karsten Wenzlaff – Minister of Social Development
- Phuong Lan Böhm – Sherpa
The Delegation of Italy
- Serena Lisi – President
- Enrico Pinna – Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Matteo Arisci – Minister of Defence
- Margot J. Wylie – Minister of Energy
- Chiara Cappellini – Minister of Finance
- Nicolo Chelotti – Minister of Internal Affairs
- Alessandra Russo – Minister of Social Development
- Giulia Lina Callegari – Sherpa
The Delegation of Canada
- Orphe Beauchemin Theriault – The Prime Minister
- Denis Giroux – Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Alexandre Lessard – Minister of Defence
- Virginie Lasnier – Minister of Energy
- Patricia Sauzede – Minister of Finance
- Bellefeuille-Cossettel Lea – Minister of Internal Affairs
- Nadia Proulx – Minister of Social Development
- Etienne Boisjoli – Sherpa
The Delegation of Russia
- Kseniia Khoruzhnikova – President
- Dmitry Chernyshev – Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Timofei Kunitsky – Minister of Defence
- Elena Dabova — Minister of Energy
- Oksana Kunets — Minister of Finance
- Yana Alexandrova — Minister of Internal Affairs
- Veronika Fedorova — Minister of Social Development
- Natalia Chernykh — Sherpa
The Delegation of the United States
- Anthony Smith – President
- Nadia Sheikh – Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Nicholas Mihran Davis – Minister of Defense
- Linda Campbell – Minister of Energy
- Dan Keenaghan – Minister of Finance
- Brian David Fox – Minister of Internal Affairs
- Nicole Fopeano – Minister of Social Development
The Delegation of France
- Virginie Gallet – President
- Marina Guseva – Minister of Foreign Affairs/li>
- Matthew Kelleher – Minister of Defence
- Mathieu Petit – Minister of Energy
- Helena Pichova – Minister of Finance
- Nadia Kleiner-Trainar – Minister of Internal Affairs
- Ciel Grossmann – Minister of Social Development
- Julie Fort – Sherpa
The Delegation of Japan
- Satoshi Hida – The Prime Minister
- Mai Goto – Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Takuro Kajiya – Minister of Defence
- Yuuki Watanabe – Minister of Energy
- Hideyuki Akai – Minister of Finance
- Sayo Kashida – Minister of Internal Affairs
- Yuka Tanokura – Minister of Social Development
- Yukiko Ogawa – Sherpa
Organizers
Practically entirely — from start to finish — G8 Youth Summit was organized by the staff of the League, that is, forces of students and young graduates of St. Petersburg Universities. Mostly they were guys, students at the Law Faculty or Economics Faculty of International Relations, St. Petersburg State University.
The idea of the G8 Youth Summit was implemented by:
- Alexandra Gryazina
- Aleksei Pavlyuk
- Anastasia Nikitina
- Anna Ezerskaia
- Anna Zhurba
- Babek Asadov
- Bogdan Anokhin
- Valeria Alaverdova
- Veronika Fedorova
- Dmitry Chernyshev
- Ekaterina Bykova
- Ekaterina Menshikova
- Elena Dabova
- Elena Larionova
- Elena Markovich
- Elena Yushina
- Karina Samofalova
- Ksenia Khoruzhnikova
- Lena Yarmanova
- Maara Shayzhanov
- Maria Perova
- Michael Glazunov
- Natalia Chernykh
- Olga Vasilyeva
- Sergei Krivobokov
- Taisiya Obraztsova
- Tatiana Timofeeva
- Timofey Kunitsky
- Eleonora Lyapina
- Julia Batkaeva
- Yana Alexandrova