On July 26 the grand opening of the Russia-Africa Youth Public Forum took place in Moscow. It brought together delegates from 29 countries of the African continent!
Grigory Gurov, the Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation called such a large-scale representation of Africa in Moscow a big victory. According to him, young people today act as a driver of interaction, so great attention is paid to youth cooperation in our country.
“The forum is a good start for further projects, expanding cooperation in the fields of education and science. Russia is ready to assist in the implementation of plans,” Grigory Gurov said.
Andrei Platonov, the Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs praised the cooperation between Russia and Africa through civil society. He cited several successful examples of such interaction: representatives of African countries have been increasingly participating in the “Eurasia Global” forum, bilateral events such as the Russia-Egypt forum have become regular. One third of applications for the “We Together” award came from representatives of African states.
Pavel Shevtsov, the Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo noted that our country is making every effort today to develop relations with Africa. As a part of the large African tour of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov taking place these days, the entire spectrum of humanitarian issues including youth cooperation is being discussed.
“Russia has something to offer the world in terms of the development of science,” Pavel Shevtsov said.
According to him, Rossotrudnichestvo expects the number of African students studying at Russian universities will continue to grow in the coming academic year.
The Chairman of the National Youth Council of Russia Grigory Petushkov recalled that Russian-African cooperation has been tested by time. He stressed today it is important to give a new impetus to youth cooperation.
Moscow consistently supports Africa’s positions in the multipolar world. But today issues of economic, humanitarian and scientific cooperation are coming to the fore. There is a good basis for large-scale youth infrastructure projects. Therefore, it is necessary to expand cooperation between youth, youth organizations of the Russian Federation and Africa.
“The most valuable thing we have is human ties, friendships. And this forum should become an annual event, held in turn in Russia and in one of the African countries,” Grigory Petushkov stated.
He shared plans for holding the International Youth Anti-Fascist Congress timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Young Guard organization and called on representatives of the African continent to participate in the congress.
Vladimir Chetiya, the President of the World Association of Graduates of Higher Educational Institutions recalled that in 2018 the Russia-Africa Forum was attended by seventeen ministers from various African states who had previously studied in our country. “This is an indicator of the quality of our education!” the speaker is sure.
According to him, our strategic task is to increase the number of associations of graduates of Russian and Soviet universities in African countries.
The Deputy Executive Director of the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund Victoria Karslieva spoke about plans to develop cooperation with the African continent in the field of public diplomacy, invited representatives of the continent states to participate in programs and projects of the Fund.
The forum is held jointly by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodyozh), the National Youth Council of Russia, the World Association of Graduates of Higher Educational Institutions and MIREA – Russian Technological University.
The project is being implemented using a grant from the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society provided by the Presidential Grants Foundation.
