‘‘Today the Moscow State Institute of International Relations has established close ties with republics of South Caucasus,’’ the rector of this distinguished university Anatoly Torkunov said in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza.
"We have good relations with many educational institutions in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, I should say that in recent years our relations have undergone a lot of difficulties. If we speak about Azerbaijan, we should note that there is a great alumni association, which actively promotes different types of programs. We hold many joint seminars and conferences and cooperate with the Diplomatic Academy, Baku State University, Baku Economic University. So we have a whole group of partner universities. As for Yerevan, we have good relations with the Armenian Slavonic University. The exchange of student groups is established and our teachers travel there to deliver lectures. We also have ties with the recently established Diplomatic Academy of Armenia, where our teachers also give courses of studies. But in general, a lot of citizens of Azerbaijan and Armenia study in Moscow. These students were selected by the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education and sent to study at MGIMO as our Russian state scholarship holders. They study there at the invitation of the Russian government,’’ he said.
The rector spoke about the upcoming Third International Forum of MGIMO graduates in Yerevan, which is to take place on October 22-24th. He noted that every year the event attracts hundreds of people from about 50 countries. This fact underlines its significance.
"We are sincerely grateful to our Armenian colleagues, friends, our graduates, who work in Armenia. There a lot of them in Armenia, including their Foreign Minister. They are responsible for a large part of organizational things. We hope that our meeting on October 23rd will be opened by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, and many well-known figures in Armenia will also attend it," the Rector of MGIMO said.
"In addition, many of our graduates will attend the event, including our students from the Eastern countries. There will be very important and honored visitors, a dozen ministers from various countries, who are to participate in this meeting and make presentations on various issues, because we will have three substantive sections. In addition to the general discussion, the sections will be devoted to the Middle East and its current problems, including the new situation in connection with the signing of a nuclear agreement with Iran and its access to the broad international arena,’’ Torkunov said.
‘‘In addition, issues related to China's economic idea of the Silk Road, the Far East problems in general, as well as the today’s role of China will also be discussed. Our graduates, professionals, representatives of both the Middle and Far Eastern countries, who participate in this discussion. I would like to say once again that many of our graduates are well-known people in their countries either in politics, or in science, or in business. So we hope that it will be a very a interesting, useful and significant meeting," he concluded.
