Distinguished Mr. Zhao Qizheng, Mr. Han Fangming, ladies and gentlemen, friends and colleagues,

Good afternoon!

It is my great pleasure to be here to share the formal reflections at the beginning of our conference. In particular, words of thanks with European delegation are we are very much honored to be here not for the first time. In other words, we have the feeling we return to our friends and colleagues with whom we have developed collaboration over the past three years and beyond. We have come here to a large group of European, of large group of Chinese colleagues and friends with a group of only 11 of our non-Chinese team. It is almost like a European soccer team. Whereas it may not like this for there is also one American and one Japanese on our soccer team. It's a great pleasure here today to discuss city diplomacy and tomorrow, but also I would like to emphasize that we see the conference as a moment in a longer exchange with the colleagues from the Charhar Institute and other Chinese scholars. We are here also because we were unable to come here without the support of ROBERT BOSCH STIFTUNG who is strongly supporting the strengthening of networks between China and Europe and we're very grateful for that. We are also very grateful and I am personally grateful for Chinese organizations and individuals who stand quietly behind this effort and not possibly in the right order but first I would like to mention the China Public Diplomacy Association who helps this event take place. We have had excellent contacts over for some time and, Ambassador Lyu led his delegation to our Hague conference last year. We are very grateful to the Shanghai Public Diplomacy Association for sponsoring and hosting this event, and in particular I would like to refer to the excellent work the Deputy Secretary General Sun Weimin in making this happen.

I would also like to single out the CPPCC for two reasons: one is because of the institutional support, but secondly, we have come across on the European side very sparking minds in the CPPCC who have visited Europe and whom we meet here. We find those contributions are very rich for our discussions. Of course I should refer in the first place to Mr. Zhao Qizheng, whom I always label as Mr. Public Diplomacy in China and reoffering to his career going back to physics that perhaps discovered together with Einstein the politics is more difficult than physics. In The Charhar Institute I would like to thanks very much Dr. Han Fangming and I personally see and I'm not trying to flat you that The Charhar Institute, as an intelligent model of think tank, not a think tank under one roof but a network of networks, not a think tank linked to one particular organization, but rather a think tank I would rather describe to Europeans as a thought laboratory, a place where people can experiment with thoughts, where people from many different quarters and excellent institutions come together and that is what I see as the great merit of this thought laboratory, also a revolving door where people from top institutions in this country joined for discussion, a network of networks. I also appreciate very much about the fact that unlike universities it is unconstrained by some of the disciplines the academia but simultaneously working on the standard of academic excellent. So, many thanks to the Charhar Institute for guaranteeing the continuity of our efforts of thinking ahead of where we should go in most substantive terms beyond city diplomacy today and tomorrow our discussion on city diplomacy, last year it was on cultural relations in Hague, and next year in Berlin, the topic is going to be defined in our discussions tomorrow. On the European side we like to think that we are guinea pigs, the experimental guinea pigs and what is the Chinese project of the internationalization of the Charhar Institute. The internationalization of the work of Charhar, if that is the case, please let me tell you that I would be the first supporter the Charhar Institute because I believe that in discussions on public diplomacy they should not take place within the cultural isolation of either the Chinese sphere or the western sphere but it is precisely to come out of our common new insights regarding the background of both sides. The project that we have with the Charhar Institute I see as the beginning of more mutual understanding, it certainly based on superb networks and I believe there is also still some work to do. The work that is still to do what in my mind be the step from dialogue to true collaboration, and in fact I could make an analogy here to studies of public diplomacy, that's: step one is the projection of your image, step two is when you are along with your party, step three is where you do joint project. It is not learning about the other, it is learning with the other. We in the Europe believe very strongly it was the way we had, but it actually last year by the representative notably from China's International Publishing Group in our discussion in Hague who made this point clear. But please join learning comes through joint projects which are beyond a polite listening to one another. I shall leave the further substantial discussions on city policy to some of my colleagues, some of the people of the European soccer team, if European soccer team, we have looked for diversity, China claims diversity we are also a very diverse place not only because there are so many States in Europe but also because the great cultural variety. We have made an effort to get in a team of eleven, early career professionals senior people, man and women, academics, practitioners, think tankers and a variety of people which we see this field give a good image of what European thinking in this field is like, and also gives the potential to look tomorrow, and at tomorrow and if the next generation of voice, so you will end in a tale of cities it was started in Beijing in 2005, and it will hopefully not end, in Berlin in 2015, where I'll call Odila who is in charge of the conference for next year. Next year we hope to have a Berlin declaration like last year we had the Hague consensus, we now also are working towards common declaration for this conference on city diplomacy. City diplomacy, in just two sentences, I think underscores the importance of representational diversity in the post war of world, in a world beyond the world of just nation states and has been repeated so often by the protagonists of works of cities, it's the concrete the levels of cities that enhance the output legitimacy and make them visible and tangible as diplomatic efforts. City diplomacy, in other words but I'm really grateful for what the experts is important in its own right as a self-standing phenomenon but city diplomacy I'm convinced is also necessary to meet the objectives of state based diplomacy. I'm looking forward to be further informed with our discussions here. I thank you very much for your attention and I would like to remind you to my previous point we see the conference a longer process of excellent only dialogue but collaboration with our Chinese partners!

Thank you very much.