Rhodes Forum - World Public Forum "Dialogue of Civilizations"

Jagdish Chandra Kapur - President,Kapur Surya Foundation,
Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations” (India)

Human-centric development is the realization by all humans, their highest potential, material, mental, supramental and spiritual, within ecological constraints.

Through the millennia the perennial wisdom was enshrined in the interconnectedness of all cosmic phenomenon and consequently that of our planet (in an ubiquitous all pervasive sea of energy) defined in different cultures differently. Similarly, contemporary new sciences posit an all pervasive energy field called quantum vacuum or zero point energy that exists in empty places. And this has consequences for all animate and inanimate existence, providing an even more complex pictures of nature.

Alexander Saltanov - Deputy Minister, Foreign Affairs or the Russian Federation (Russia)

Esteemed participants of the Forum,

In addition to what S.V. Lavrov has noted in his greeting, I would like to say that your Forum is of special significance at this particular moment. As our President D.A. Medvedev said in his recent speech in Yaroslavl, at the Modern State and Global Security Conference, ‘politics is becoming an increasingly complex and science-intensive process’. To address new challenges of the times it is necessary to concentrate intellectual resources in the key areas to the greatest extent possible. It is not only that domination of one or several superpowers is a thing of the past – one or several intellectual centres can hold sway no longer. Future belongs to such flexible instruments, that help to understand the quickly changing reality and make recommendations, as your Forum which is attended by intellectuals, politicians, and public figures from several dozen countries.

Strobe Talbott - President, Brookings Institution (USA)
(Transcript of the Speech)

Good morning to all of you,

I think it is very much in the spirit of these proceedings that some of what I have to say this morning will be subject to discussion and indeed to debate. There is only one issue on which I would presume to speak for everyone in this chamber and only because I’m the first one after him to take the podium, and that is to express admiration and thanks to Mr Yakunin for his role and bringing us together and for making this conference an important annual global event. I too am departing from my text there, Vladimir.