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• Culture and Civilizations
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International
Conference on CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Address
of Highly
Esteemed Presidents, It
is my pleasure to welcome you in Vilnius, at the International Conference
“Dialogue among Civilisations”. Today,
we have gathered to discuss once again the directions in which our world is
heading, so that we could enrich it with greater mutual understanding,
enhanced confidence, partnership and hope. I
am grateful to UNESCO for supporting Lithuania’s initiative to organise the
Vilnius Conference as one of the major events dedicated to the United Nations
Year of Dialogue among Civilisations. Lithuania is a country, where old
cultures and civilisations have crisscrossed, competed and co-existed
throughout the centuries. Lithuania was the last European state to accept
Christianity. In the Middle Ages, our country not only suffered from the armed
crusades coming from the West against the so-called “barbarity” of the
East, but also had to promote concord among its residents representing
different cultures and religions. For
many years, Baltic pagan temples, Roman Catholic churches and Byzantine
Eastern Orthodox churches here stood next to each other. Later, mosques,
synagogues and Karaim kenesas were built in the immediate proximity to Roman
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Members of the families of Lithuanian
Grand Dukes could even profess different religions. Different national
traditions were respected in the lands under their rule. Tolerance
and coexistence of nations, which marked the history of the State of Lithuania
in the past, regained their significance when our country restored
independence. Since the very first days of independence, our state has been
strengthened by both peaceful coexistence of its ethnic groups and good
neighbourly relations. Lithuania’s strategic partners of the past have
become its strategic partners of today: therefore participation of my
colleagues, the Presidents of Poland and the Ukraine, at this conference is
not accidental. I believe that the experience accumulated in Eastern and
Central Europe over the centuries can be used as a background for the issues
that this conference will address. Globalisation
is expanding in today’s world. The distances between its parts are shrinking
and relations among peoples intensify. The contemporary world, dominated by
modern information technologies, not only forces closer dialogue among
civilisations, but is also gradually turning into a civilisation of dialogue.
Of course, this is a complex and contradictory transformation. Quite often it
is impeded by stereotypes that for many centuries have hampered the relations
among civilizations. Still,
no civilisation can solely claim to represent the entire humanity or to assume
full responsibility for it. Neither can a single civilisation claim exclusive
rights to provide a universally valid vision of how to be a good human being
and how to live wisely in today’s world. We may find answers to these
questions only through the dialogue among civilisations or by way of a
polylogue. Only
by participating in polylogue of civilisations, can a civilisation get to know
itself better and put its core values to a critical test. Only lively
polylogue of civilisations can help safeguard mutual respect and tolerance,
dignity and partnership among people of different cultural experience. I
want to emphasise that dialogue among civilisations is not self-generated. It
is the result of joint efforts. As my old friend, professor Vytautas Kavolis,
former President of the International Society for the Comparative Study of
Civilisations, said, every civilisation has its own denominator of cultural
liberalism, which enables different societies to understand each other. He was
convinced that this denominator of liberalism along with mutual understanding
between civilisations should nowadays be promoted by a modern educational
system. Professor Kavolis maintained that sooner or later comparative studies
of civilisations will become an important part of modem education. Indeed, it
will be essential to the people living in the contemporary world to be able to
think and act being conscious of the entire complexity of civilisations and to
build a new future on the basis of this consciousness. It
is gratifying that Lithuania - a Central European state which regained
independence only eleven years ago - today can become the venue of dialogue
among civilisations and make its modest contribution to building confidence
among people and nations, and strengthening the traditions of mutual respect
and tolerance in the 21st century. I,
as the Head of the State of Lithuania and a citizen of the world at the
beginning of the new millennium, strongly support the efforts of Lithuania in
this area. I wish the Vilnius Conference lively discussions, creative spirit
and meaningful work, and to all its participants and guests I wish the best of
success.
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