Moscow (TDI): The second World Public Assembly opened in Moscow today, bringing together public figures, scholars, and former statespeople from across the globe to explore a question with few easy answers: what shared values might hold humanity together in an increasingly fractured twenty-first century.
The gathering builds on the inaugural World Public Assembly held in Moscow in 2025, which drew more than 5,000 participants from 153 countries and concluded that “conscious unity” could serve as a foundation for mutual understanding, respect for cultural diversity, and shared responsibility for the future.
Organizers say this year’s edition, running through September 19, aims to deepen that conversation through direct dialogue among leaders representing sharply different cultures, generations, and political traditions.
The Main Plenary Session sits at the heart of the two-day program. Among the confirmed speakers is Andrey Belyaninov, Secretary General of the World Peoples Assembly and a member of the Russian Federation’s Commission for UNESCO, who will help frame the session’s central question for delegates.
He will be joined by Ali Nasser Mohammed, President of the Arab Peace Group and former President of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen from 1980 to 1986, bringing a perspective shaped by decades of Middle Eastern politics.
From the United States, Gnaka Lagoké, who chairs the Pan-Africana Studies Department at Lincoln University and founded the Ubuntu Philosophy Foundation, is expected to draw on African philosophical traditions of communal identity and interdependence.
Russian Senator Ilyas Umakhanov, representing the Republic of Dagestan, and Meenakshi Lekhi, India’s former Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture from 2021 to 2024, round out a roster weighted toward senior political experience.
Younger voices will also have a seat at the table: Malaysian lawyer and youth advocate Nurul Ashiqin Shamsuri, founder of the Project Fearless initiative, is set to bring a generational perspective on activism and rights.
Cuban academician Fidel Antonio Castro-Smirnov, Deputy Secretary General of the World Peoples Assembly, will offer a Latin American and scientific vantage point.
Organizers describe the session as an attempt to move beyond declarations toward substantive dialogue, testing whether figures from such varied backgrounds, spanning government, academia, law, and civil society, can articulate common ground on values ranging from cultural respect to collective responsibility.
