Such an event is interesting not only for the historians, not only for Russia and the USA, but for the whole world. The scenario of Russian-American relations in the XXI century will much influence the future of the mankind.
Russian-American relations were established in the climax of the biggest global crisis that followed the transition of the world to capitalism (The New Time). History shows that even at the most complicated and critical times the interaction between Russia and the USA always facilitated in solving decisions that allowed to regain balance.
200th anniversary of Russian-American relations are marked by the time of a new world crisis. The decisions that are being made will influence greatly the future of the world.
Unfortunately, today the world is threatened by conflicts and struggle for resources. In many countries the capital and commodity flow limits are set. As a rule, in these countries populism and nationalism start to strengthen.
Dialogue is the only way to generate new approaches of finding the way out of the crisis. A lot of things will depend on the development of Russian-American partnership and cooperation.
The important fact is that the necessity of finding new approaches is widely recognized on different social levels, even in the USA. The brightest evidence is the election of Barack Obama as the new US President.
Because of these postulates the Russian-American Business Club put forward an initiative to hold the Forum of Business and Humanitarian Cooperation “Russia and USA: 200 years of relations” in the year of anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two great countries. The Club plans to hold the Forum in November, 2009 in St. Petersburg, dedicating it to the anniversary of presentation of credentials by the first US ambassador John Quincy Adams to the emperor Aleksandr I.
The Forum assumes the participation of the Presidents of two countries is aimed at finding the decisions allowing to restore the whole concept of Russian-American relations, that has undergone a crisis phase since the beginning of Bush administration. The Forum is considered to be a unique opportunity to start the dialog between politicians, public figures and businessmen.