09.12.2022
On October 8-16, Ms. Evgenia Zaitseva, Deputy Head of the International Relations Department of Tomsk State University, and Ms. Farida Babayeva, Assistant of the Vice-Rector for International Relations had a professional development internship in the ASEAN Centre.
Ms. Evgenia Zaitseva and Ms. Farida Babayeva provided assistance for the ASEAN Centre’s Stuff in preparing and hosting international conference "Russia and ASEAN in the Asia-Pacific Region", which was held within the framework of the XIV RISA Convention. This internship program was implemented as a part of cooperation between Tomsk State University and MGIMO.
Ms. Farida Babayeva shares her impressions on the internship:
“In October, as a part of professional development internship, my colleague and I were lucky to look inside the “mechanism” called the ASEAN Centre at MGIMO of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which for the last 12 years has been promoting the development of economic ties, academic exchanges, culture and education cooperation, as well as humanitarian contacts between Russia and Southeast Asian countries.
Our internship was focused on gaining practical skills in organizing a large-scale conference "Russia and ASEAN in the Asia-Pacific Region: Dynamics of Cooperation, Regional Processes and Global Context", which took place on October 13–15 within the framework of the XIV RISA Convention.
During the conference organization colleagues from the ASEAN Centre provided us with the opportunity to fully participate in their daily work, including the implementation of interesting tasks required for the successful hosting of this event.
On October 15, as a part of the conference Tomsk State University and the ASEAN Centre co-organized a special session "Laos Experience in ASEAN and Current Trends in the Russia-Lao PDR Relations Development". Among the guests of the session were Russian well-known experts in Lao studies, Lao students and graduate students. Our joint efforts helped us to organize the offline participation of Ms. Phakphomma Sitthisone, National Research Tomsk State University student, whose presentation was devoted to the topic "Russia-ASEAN Cooperation: achievements and engagement”. More details about the conference sessions can be found by the link.
We would like to express our gratitude to the ASEAN Centre’s Staff, and especially to Dr. Ekaterina Koldunova, the Director of the ASEAN Centre, Dr. Valeria Vershinina and Dr. Nikita Kuklin, ASEAN Centre Experts, who have warmly integrated us into their team and willingly shared their experience. My wish to develop professional skills in this area has become even stronger thanks to the Centre’s professionalism and interesting tasks during the internship”.