3 December 2019
December 3rd, the Ambassador of Belgium to Russia Jean-Arthur Rejibo and the Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation to Russia Yves Rossier came to MGIMO.
The guests were received by the management of the University. During the meeting, the Rector A. Torkunov reviewed with the Ambassadors the existing educational collaboration with universities in Belgium and Switzerland and considered the opportunities to expand it. The sides also spoke about different directions for cooperation through the European Studies Institute.
The Ambassadors also gave a talk to an audience of students and members of the faculty. J.-A. Rejibo and Y. Rossier welcomed all those attending and described some of the specificities of the national mentalities and the political systems of Belgium and Switzerland. The guests then had a discussion with the students on the concepts of «nationality» and «citizenship», their interrelation and the challenge of protecting cultural diversity in multinational states. Among the topics brought up were the state of Russian-European relations and the need to forge constructive and mutually beneficial ties between Europe and Russia.
At the end of the meeting, the students thanked the guests for making themselves available for such an interesting discussion and expressed hope to see the Ambassadors soon again at MGIMO.
— See the MGIMO web-site for russian version
