The “activities are currently closed”, confirmed the Austrian co-chairman of the dialogue, Christoph Leitl, yesterday. The Sochi dialogue is “currently on hold,” said a spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (VP). There is no formal decision to do so.
Leitl did not comment on whether he would remain in his role as co-chair of the dialogue. “Now politics is in charge,” said the former President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.
According to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, music, art and culture, university cooperation, science and research, business and sport are the focal points of the Sochi dialogue.
The Sochi Dialogue was officially presented on the occasion of the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen in Vienna in June 2018 and the foreign ministers of both countries, at that time Karin Kneissl (FPÖ) and Sergey Lavrov, were commissioned to carry it out. The constituent meeting took place in 2019.
Source: Nachrichten
