Ambassador of Burkina Faso Speaks on Global Security at MGIMO

Ambassador of Burkina Faso Speaks on Global Security at MGIMO

28 November 2018

November 28th, the Ambassador of Burkina Faso in Russia Antoine Somdah delivered a lecture to students of the Russian-American Master Program on «WMP Non-Proliferation, Nuclear Policy and Global Security». The event was attended by the Ambassador of Guinea, Mohamed Keita, the Ambassador of Guinea-Bissau, Seco Intchasso, and the Ambassador of Rwanda, Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya.

Antoine Somdah, a graduate of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, is an expert on legal issues surrounding nuclear energy, who worked in the Permanent Mission of Burkina Faso to the United Nations in New York. MGIMO’s Vice-Rector for Graduate and International Programs Andrey Baykov greeted the Ambassador and described to him the different programs offered by the University. Antoine Somdah shared his vision of the relationship between nuclear weapons and peaceful atomic energy.

During his lecture, the Ambassador spoke about nuclear disarmament, the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the main tasks of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He noted that denuclearization is an utopia and that we should concern ourselves primarily with making sure that non-state actors such as terrorist groups do not access nuclear weapons. The Ambassador also commented that one of the basic rules of the IAEA could be summarized by the Russian proverb «Trust, but check».

— See the MGIMO web-site for more photos and russian version