Ural Federal University: Young Diplomats Identify the Realities of Modern Politics
The Ural Federal University has opened XVIII Diplomatic Seminar for Young Specialists, organized by the Gorchakov Fund for the Support of Public Diplomacy. Its participants include undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students majoring in international relations, political science, journalism, economics and law. It is also attended by representatives of public organizations, youth movements, experts from Moscow State University and the National Research University Higher School of Economics, journalists and other specialists. In total, the seminar brought together representatives of 15 countries.
“We thank our colleagues who found an opportunity to participate and came to us. I would like to address to the experts of our university who participate in the seminar – use this platform to talk about the region, the city, the university and within the framework of informal communication to establish lasting contacts. There are new things that need to be discussed now, including the formation of a new configuration of international relations and the traceable departure from the monopolar world to a system that no one knows yet what system and what kind of relationship. Perhaps you will try to figure it out and tell us about it,” says Victor Koksharov, Rector of the UrFU.
The seminar is the Fund’s first face-to-face event in three years.
“It is a great pleasure for us to hold a full-time seminar at the site of UrFU. We had planned to do it earlier, but circumstances prevented it. This is the first full-fledged off-site event in the last three years. We are glad that the seminar is being held here, in a university with a developed international component, which is always very important for us,” explains Daria Lobanova, Deputy Executive Director of the Gorchakov Foundation.
UrFU and the Sverdlovsk Region are actively developing international relations, believes Lyudmila Berg, Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the Sverdlovsk Region. The region ranks third among Russian regions in the number of foreign official representative offices; more than 30 diplomatic and trade missions are accredited in Ekaterinburg. Ekaterinburg is also a traditional venue of major international events. For instance, the city has hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS summits, the Russia-European Union summit, the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit initiated by United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the World Cities Day supported by UN-Habitat, etc. Since 2010, the Sverdlovsk region has hosted the Innoprom International Industrial Exhibition, whose partner countries were China, Japan, India, South Korea, Turkey, and Italy.
“It is no coincidence that the diplomatic seminar is taking place in the Sverdlovsk Region. Our region is a dynamically developing subject of the Russian Federation, which maintains international trade and cultural relations with more than 160 countries. We also support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We are one of four subjects of Russia, which for the fourth year in a row submits its reports to the UN, in Geneva, on achieving the goal of sustainable development,” said Lyudmila Berg.