The International Star-Shaped Citadel Cities Summit is held every three years with the participation of the world’s cities with star-shaped citadels. Its purpose is to explore various topics ranging from historical and cultural aspects of the citadels to the future roles of cities and citadels in achieving active development of the local community. The summit meeting also has the aim of fostering friendship among all participants and thus contributing to the long and lasting world peace. The Third International Star-Shaped Citadel Cities Summit was co-hosted by St. Petersburg, Russia and Hamina, Finland, it being coincided with the 300^th Anniversary of the city of St. Petersburg and the 350^th Anniversary of the city of Hamina.

During the 3rd Summit it was discussed how important it is for each city to explore every possibility to promote awareness among citizens on the precious historical heritages they share and to enable for them to make positive use of various aspects of the citadels. It was then urged that the cities belonging to the European Union to actively work on to influence UNESCO for the financial support to promote such actions.It was also discussed on how to strengthen the cooperation among cities in the International Star-Shaped Citadel Cities Association, which was officially established during the 2^nd International Star-Shaped Citadel Cities Summit. Regarding this, it was decided to hold design contest to create a symbol design of the Association.