Sergey Lavrov Addresses MGIMO Freshmen

Sergey Lavrov Addresses MGIMO Freshmen

1 September 2017

September 1st, as of tradition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came to MGIMO to welcome the University’s newly enrolled students. During his speech, the Foreign Minister analyzed the current situation on the international arena, Russia’s political objectives and took questions from the audience.

MGIMO Rector Anatoly Torkunov kicked off the meeting by greeting the new students and noting how special the 1st of September always is for the University as Sergei Lavrov has made it a tradition to visit MGIMO every year on Knowledge Day. The Rector noted what an honor it is for the freshmen to be able to directly address their questions to the Foreign Minister. Anatoly Torkunov also warmly congratulated the students on their success in the Unified State Exam and Olympiad competitions, which enabled them to integrate MGIMO.

Sergei Lavrov began his talk with words of praise to the freshmen, and then spoke about Russia’s foreign policy, underlining the fact that our country has no imperialistic goals. Rather than impose its own decisions, Russia is in favor of everyone abiding by collective rules and makes significant efforts to settle international conflicts.

The Minister also delved into Russian-American relations, remarking that our country has always been open to bilateral cooperation, but «you need two to tango» and America seems to rather prefer performing alone a «break-dance». At the end of his speech, the Minister answered a myriad of questions, relating to political and economic challenges, the fight against terrorism, environmental protection and other burning topics.

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