On Monday, August 23, the Kyiv Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen will take place in the capital of Ukraine. The event aims to create an international dialogue platform that will help solve humanitarian problems around the world. The ideological inspirer of the summit is First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.
During a meeting with media representatives, the President's wife and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke about the format, participants and expected results of the Kyiv Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen.
The theme of the first summit: "Soft Power in the New Reality". Participants will discuss the challenges and opportunities in the new reality, when old methods and tools no longer work, and new ones have not yet been found or tested. According to the First Lady of Ukraine, soft power tools can be the key to a better future in the new reality. After all, soft power diplomacy does not use political power, but rather a dialogue in the humanitarian sphere.
"First Ladies and Gentlemen do not have political power, but they can draw attention to urgent humanitarian issues at the highest level. Until now, there was no international platform where we could communicate on a regular basis, sharing the experience of our countries. By creating such a platform as the First Ladies and Gentlemen Summit, Ukraine is setting a new trend for the whole world. We are planning to make such summits annual. This will allow participants to discuss and influence the solution of the most pressing problems. For example, this year's summit will feature Afghan film director Sahraa Karimi, who was helped by Ukraine to get out of Afghanistan,” Olena Zelenska said.
"The Kyiv Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen will bring together more than 20 participants - wives and husbands of foreign heads of state, as well as international and Ukrainian experts. The Summit will welcome guests from Brazil, Israel, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Germany, Serbia, Costa Rica, as well as representatives of the European Council, WHO and UN Women,” said Dmytro Kuleba.
The special guest of the event will be Nassim Nicholas Taleb, an American publicist, economist, and author of a number of bestsellers (Black Swan, Antifragile, etc.).
Ukrainian speakers at the summit will include: Zoya Lytvyn, public figure, head of the Osvitoria NGO, founder of the Novopecherska School and the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine; Yana Panfilova, CEO of Teenergizer; Kateryna Levchenko, Government Commissioner for Gender Policy; and Viktor Lyashko, Minister of Health of Ukraine. More information about the summit symbols and other details is available at https://kyivsummitflg.gov.ua/.
The partners of the event are: Yalta European Strategy (YES), Kyiv School of Economics (a world-class private university providing education in economics and IT, business management and public administration), BMW Ukraine, the official importer of German cars, part of the AWT Bavaria group of companies, and DTEK.