Updated 5:48 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) – The Petersburg Dialogue, a business forum of Russia and Germany involving top-level meetings and scheduled for late October, has been postponed, the event’s press service said Monday.
“The Petersburg Dialogue of Germany and Russia will not take place in late October in Sochi, as scheduled, it will be put off. This decision was made by chiefs of the [forum’s] coordination committees on both sides,” the forum’s press office said in a statement.
The annual Petersburg dialogue forum was established in 2001 at the initiative of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder. The forum is aimed at increasing the mutual understanding between Russia and Germany, further developing the bilateral cooperation in various spheres and broadening contacts between the two nations.
Late on Sunday evening, the Kremlin press service said that President Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had discussed in a phone conversation the preparation process for their talks within the framework of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) forum in Italy's Milan. During the Summit scheduled for October 16-17 the two leaders are going to discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine.
