Zerbst (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany) hosted the First Russian-German Catherine Forum, in which politicians, businessmen, representatives of universities and research organizations from Russia and Germany took part. Derzhavin University was represented by Prof. Irina Bezukladova, Head of the International Relations Department, President of the Goethe Tambov Society.

Among the speakers at the forum there were Sergei Nechaev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Germany, Rainer Haseloff, Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, Thomas Wünsh, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics, Science and Digitalization of Saxony-Anhalt and Mayor of Zerbst.

The forum participants stressed the need to intensify Russian-German contacts in the spheres of economy, politics, science and education. German colleagues noted that today it is necessary to develop especially actively the relations between organizations and universities, since direct contacts contribute to the maintenance and development of Russian-German relations as a whole. Participants also discussed the prospects for creating technoparks, the problems of joint scientific projects and their commercialization.

TSU named after G.R. Derzhavin was represented in the podium discussion, dedicated to the problems and prospects for cooperation between Russian and German universities.

“An agreement on cooperation in academic exchanges and development of double degree programs was reached with the two universities from Magdeburg and Bernburg,” Irina Bezukladova shared the news. “Since the languages of such training are German and Russian, it will become a stimulus for our students of non-linguistic specialties to learn German.”