The theme of terrorism permeated almost all of the workshops and seminars held on the forum's sidelines. Coordinating Committee Co-Chair Mikhail Gorbachev said at a final press conference that Petersburg Dialogue would ask the Council of Europe to put together an anti-terrorist convention. The former Soviet president noted that there was still no pan-European anti-terror accord and that Europe badly needed one now.
Klaus Mangold, Chairman of the Eastern Committee for the German Economy, also pointed out the urgent need for a legal framework to counter terrorism. At this year's forum, Mangold was sitting in for Coordinating Committee Co-Chair Peter Benisch, who had failed to attend owing to illness.
During their two-day sessions, the forum participants discussed a whole range of issues, including the role of Russia and Germany in Europe and their economic, scientific and cultural cooperation.
A Russo-German intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in youth policies is to be signed in Moscow shortly, Gorbachev announced. "Petersburg Dialogue's Hamburg session will have a follow-up in Moscow," he said. Specifically, this agreement envisages the establishment of coordinating offices in each of the countries. Due to be opened in May 2005, they will be involved with financing youth exchange programs, providing information and advice to young people and youth organizations willing to take part, and encouraging more conferences between Russians and Germans.
The 5th Petersburg Dialogue forum is to be held in its birthplace, at Mayor Valentina Matviyenko's suggestion.
