Стр. 9 - V

http://interaffairs.ru
Author : A. Torkunov
Rector of the Moscow State Institute (University) of International Relations (MGIMO), Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Member of
the ASEAN-Russia Eminent Persons Group
EARLY IN APRIL 2016, MGIMO hosted the
third meeting of the ASEAN-Russia Eminent
Persons Group. During the meeting, held at the
MGIMO compound in Moscow, the group fin-
ished the mission for which it had been set up
and definitively approved a draft report on
prospects for dialogue partnership between Rus-
sia and the Association of Southeast Asian Na-
tions. The draft report was due to be put before an ASEAN-Russia summit in Sochi in May this
year.
It was by no means a coincidence that our university had been chosen as the venue for the group's
final meeting. It was the ASEAN Center at MGIMO that had proposed setting up the group.
After this proposal had received Russian and ASEAN approval, the Center took an active part
in drawing up conceptual guidelines for the group's activities and in drafting the report for the
Sochi summit.
It was logical that setting up the Center was entrusted to MGIMO. Studies of the history, cultures,
and domestic and foreign policies of Southeast Asian countries, lectures and seminars on these
subjects, and, naturally, on the evolution of ASEAN from its inception, have been part and
parcel of MGIMO curricula and research programs for many decades.
THE CENTER hadn't been conceived of as a large organization either on the Russian or on
the ASEAN side. It was thought of as an entity with a full-time staff of three or four, including
the director, while any help it might need would be provided by MGIMO from its own resources,
intellectual or other, or by the Russian Foreign Ministry since MGIMO is under its jurisdiction,
which has been the case.
IN CHOOSING the MGIMO compound as the location of the ASEAN Center's headquarters,
we naturally anticipated that our students, as, indeed, regional studies majors from other Russian
institutions, would be closely involved in the organization's work. It needs to be mentioned that
there is no oversupply of those who have chosen regional studies as their professional field. It
is important that people who have opted for this career come together when they are only just
embarking on their profession, that they should be stimulated to exchange opinions on the issues
of the countries they are studying, and encouraged to cooperate in the future. It would be ex-
cellent if undergraduate years were the time when our future stars of Indonesian, Vietnamese,
or other Southeast Asian studies began to acquire skills of direct communication with people
whose languages they were learning.
The ASEAN Center in Moscow and Its Gravitational Pull