OREANDA-NEWS. December 25, 2008.  Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov on December 24 met with rectors of leading Russian tertiary education institutions enrolling foreign students and carrying out other projects in the field of international education cooperation. In the course of the meeting a thorough exchange of views took place on how to use more effectively the potentialities of the Foreign Ministry and its overseas agencies in the interest of promoting the export of Russian educational services.

Lavrov stressed in his remarks that the vigorous activity of Russian tertiary education institutions in the world market contributes to strengthening the international positions of Russia in the context of the formation of a polycentric world order and helps build up its soft power potential as a major resource of foreign policy whose significance steadily grows in contemporary conditions. Special attention was paid to education cooperation with the CIS countries. The university platform as a component part of the international civil society dialogue and network public diplomacy will be in ever greater demand in the future.

The Foreign Ministry, its agencies abroad, and the Federal Agency for CIS, Overseas Compatriots and International Humanitarian Cooperation provide many-sided assistance in the realization of international projects of Russian tertiary education institutions. The ministry’s Collegium, meeting the day before, outlined a number of additional measures aimed inter alia at intensifying and enhancing the effectiveness of activities of Russian diplomacy in this sector.

The leaders of Russian tertiary education institutions gave a high assessment of interaction between the university community and the MFA and voiced their thoughts on its further expansion and improvement, which will be elaborated on the practical plane. 

Representatives from the Education and Science Ministry, the Ministry of Education and Rossotrudnichestvo took part in the meeting.