It will be 600 years since the Treaty of Melnus was signed on 27 September. To commemorate this event in Lithuania, the Vilkaviskis Tourism and Business Information Centre (TVIC) and Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) are organising the Sūduva Forum - an international scientific conference.

Twelve speakers from five countries will participate. The three-part series of events will start on 16 September. The conference will take place at the Kybartai Cultural Centre on 16th of September, with the scientific conference "The socio-cultural role of the Black Peace Treaty in the development of the security architecture of Europe and Lithuania".

The aim of the conference is to reveal the socio-cultural role of the Black Peace Treaty in fostering the security of local communities in Lithuania and Europe, as well as to initiate research on the socio-cultural role of sustainable peace and its development, and the challenges of the paradigm shift of security architecture in Europe.

In today's context, the Black Sea Peace Treaty has become relevant not only for its historical value and the circumstances of its emergence, but also more generally for the historical, political, legal, economic and cultural roles of successful cross-border peace treaties in the consolidation of European security. The conference will also seek to shed light on the links between the development of Lithuania, Poland and Germany and the implementation of the Black Sea Peace Treaty, as well as other themes.

Twelve presentations will be made on these themes by researchers from Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Spain and the USA.

The first edition of the Forum is expected to be a continuous event and is planned to be held every few years.

The number of participants is limited, so everyone will have the opportunity to watch the conference live via MRU's YouTube account: https://bit.ly/3qMrziZ.

The programme of the event can be found here: https://bit.ly/3S6ejS9.

The event will be held in English.