MGIMO alumni forum to discuss Middle East problems

YEREVAN, October 23. /TASS/. The problems of the Middle East, Iran and China as well as regional integration processes and economic diplomacy will top the agenda of the third international forum of MGIMO (Moscow State Institute of International Relations) alumni, which will open in Yerevan on Friday. About 350 MGIMO alumni from 50 countries have arrived in the Armenian capital to take part in their traditional get-together. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will deliver an address at the opening of the forum, the participants will be welcomed by Armenia’s Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Nebenzia. "This year will mark the 200th anniversary of the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages in Moscow, which was founded by well-known representatives of the Armenian diaspora in Russia - entrepreneurs, educators and philanthropists, the Lazarev brothers - Ivan and Joachim," Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan told TASS. "This institution became one of the two schools on whose basis MGIMO was established. Therefore, the MGIMO alumni forum will be dedicated to this jubilee as well," he added. "MGIMO alumni are more than 40,000 experts in international relations from 60 countries," Nalbandyan said, adding that "this was a great potential and a huge force" capable of "making the world more harmonious, more safe for future generations." Nalbandyan graduated from MGIMO in 1978. Last April he was awarded an honorary doctorate of MGIMO. Read more