Under Secretary Judith McHale concludes successful first meeting of the Obama-Medvedev Commission working group

December 10, 2009

In bilateral meetings Dec 7-9 in Moscow, the United States and the Russian Federation reached consensus on a number of recommendations and initiatives to build a strong foundation of trust between our two countries.  Russian Special Presidential Envoy for International Cultural Cooperation, Ambassador Mikhail Shvydkoy, and United States Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith A. McHale presided over discussions among American and Russian government officials and leaders of business, non-governmental organizations, and professional sports associations. United States Congressman Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts also joined in these discussions. The discussions resulted in a broad consensus on the following:

• In elementary, secondary and higher education, the parties intend to develop new educational and research initiatives in science, language acquisition and proficiency, teacher education, and professional development. We also intend to expand existing exchange mechanisms, such as the Fulbright Program and university partnerships.
• In culture, we intend to develop events in both of our countries celebrating the traditions, accomplishments, and aspirations of our two peoples. We will also examine innovative use of the Internet to convey the dynamism of our cultures to students in each of our countries.

In sports, we will initiate a pilot exchange of young nonprofessional student athletes in several team sports, including hockey, basketball, beach volleyball, and swimming.  We will consider expanding this program both in scope and into other sports in the future.

The participants will also continue discussions to identify areas of cooperation in media.

These discussions build on the commitment by Presidents Obama and Medvedev in July 2009 to deepen and enrich connections between the people of the United States and the people of Russia. These meetings took place under the auspices of the Bilateral Presidential Commission’s Working Group on Education, Culture, Sports, and Media, one of sixteen working groups created under this Presidential initiative.

The next meeting of the Working Group on Education, Culture, Sports, and Media is planned for March 2010 in the United States.

Department of State partners participating in the discussions included:

Education:

• Jacqueline Edmondson, Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Graduate Studies, Penn State’s College of Education
• Ralph Hines, Director of The Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education
• Andre Lewis, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Department of Education
• Dr. Glenn Schweitzer, Director, Office for Central Europe and Eurasia, National Research Council, The National Academy of Sciences
• Michael Stanton, Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs, Blackboard
• John Vaughn, Executive Vice President, Association of American Universities

Culture:

• Alan Cooper, Executive Director, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
• Brent Glass, Director, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
• Rachel Goslins, Executive Director, President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
• Dr. Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress
• Christopher Merrill, Director of International Writing Program, University of Iowa
• Laurie Norton Moffatt, Director/CEO of Norman Rockwell Museum and Board Member, American Association of Museums
• Anthony Radich, Executive Director, Western States Arts Federation
• Carole Watson, Deputy Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities

Sports:

• Dragomir Cioroslan, Director of International Development and Strategies, U.S. Olympic Committee
• Harris Diamond, CEO, Weber Shandwick and CEO, Constituency Management Group of Interpublic Group of Companies
• Ken Yaffe, Senior Vice President, National Hockey League International