17 April 2019
April 17th, Ian Hill, the Ambassador of New Zealand to Russia came to MGIMO University for a meeting with the Vice-Rector for Graduate and International Programs Andrey Baykov and to give a lecture to students.
The Vice-Rector and the Ambassador spoke about the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between their countries and noted that it was a fine occasion to expand cooperation by sharing experiences and developing new academic contacts. The parties discussed the best ways of training professional diplomats and structuring the diplomatic service. The meeting was also attended on MGIMO’s side by the Head of the International Office Egor Andreev, and members of the faculty.
The Ambassador delivered a lecture on New Zealand’s diplomatic experience as a small country, with limited political ambitions and economic means. The students put a number of questions to the guest about how New Zealand uses digital and sports diplomacy to reach its goals, how it fulfils its diplomatic tasks with a limited number of foreign missions and how it interacts with ASEAN countries, China, Russia, the United States, and Commonwealth countries. The lecture was also attended by the Director of the ASEAN Center, Viktor Sumsky.
— See the MGIMO web-site for russian version
