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The Foreign Ministry’s VI Forum of Young Diplomats

Jul 11, 2019

A two-day Annual Forum of Young Diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (the MFA) closed today at WTC Moscow. Over the last 6 years the Forum has proven to be a place for exchange of opinions and professional development of young specialists in diplomacy. The diplomats from 22 countries took part in the discussions.

Konstantin Kolpakov, the Chairman of the Council of Young Diplomats, pointed out:

«… at the moment we have 22 countries participating in our forum in order to develop diplomatic relations. At first glance the number is not that large, but all the participants are already the policy departments’ staff members, responsible for different diplomatic directions, working on integration and partnerships among the young diplomats»

A number of speakers presented their ideas to the young generation of diplomats:

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexander Pankin,
Minister of the Eurasian Economic Commission Veronika Nikishina,
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev
Chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky and other experts from universities, corporations and diplomatic bodies.
The report by Konstantin Kosachev was the main event of the second day of forum. He told young specialists not only about his own diplomatic experience, but also about the countries leadership issue, described the current situation on the geopolitical scene and answered questions from the audience.

The discussion’s principal themes were the leadership in the world and the problem of territorial integrity of countries. Konstantin Kosachev noticed: «…in discussing the problem we should start from the current situation, by looking at ‘here and now’ not by looking 5-6 years back».

Talking about the territorial integrity the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council noticed that the solution to the issue must be backed by the Constitution, otherwise other decisions mustn’t be presented as officially substantiated information. The use of military force in dealing with territorial integrity issue is a wrong strategy for solving problems. In this case the international law would be violated, which could lead to new problems.

«If there is an attempt to use military force, the situation may turn out to be unpredictable for the country. Sooner or later humanity will have to stop and admit one thing: the international law is being violated and it needs some refinements». The only way to solve the problem is to drop all the reciprocal claims.

The most popular questions at the session were the ones on security, countries independence and prospects of partnership development with the leading countries. The participants of the forum concluded that the only way to solve long-term problems of global importance was to review the conditions of the international law or to create a unified global legal realm.

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It was the 6th edition of the Young Diplomats Forum. Its main goal was to create the basis for long-term partnership among young diplomacy specialists which would aide strengthening the links and the level of trust among the countries and their political elites. The traditional organizer of Forum was the Union of Young Diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (club SIGN) supported by the Gorchakov Fund and the Eurasian Economic Commission. In 2019 WTC Moscow became a partner of the Forum.

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