Diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs meet with participants of Artek sessions as part of the Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy program, Children – Ambassadors of Peace. They explain the basics of diplomacy and international relations through games, workshops and creative activities.

What does it mean to be in the diplomatic service? How difficult is it to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? What kind of challenges and difficulties do diplomats encounter during their service, and what do they value most in their work? The participants in the Children – Ambassadors of Peace program were given the answers to these and many other questions at a meeting with Deputy Head of the Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department Maxim Buyakevich.

“Artek has an amazing infrastructure and a wonderful atmosphere in which the participants are just bound to reveal their talents, I think,” Maxim Buyakevich said. “Most of the problems in international politics generally arise due to misunderstandings between countries. The sooner children start an interethnic dialogue, the easier it will be for them, as adults, to understand each other's problems and approaches and find the right solutions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs always provides support to any initiatives aimed at strengthening dialogue between children, and we will continue to do so, including in cooperation with Artek.”

During his meeting with the young people at Artek, the guest explained what diplomatic work is like. A good diplomat should, first of all, be fluent in foreign languages, since it is necessary to process a lot of foreign texts and communicate with foreign colleagues, he pointed out. It is also important not to vent your emotions. He talked about the international problems foreign ministries around the world have to address and what the Ministry’s Information and Press Department does.

Maxim Buyakevich noted that the diplomatic service is not easy, but very interesting, because you get to see the whole world. But the most important thing, according to the guest, is the realization that you are working for the sake and in the interest of your Fatherland.

The future diplomats listened with interest to the Foreign Ministry official, and by the end of the meeting they had a lot of different questions. They were interested in learning more about the intricacies of a diplomat’s job, how to prepare for important negotiations, what to do if a question is asked at a news conference and you don’t have an answer. The young people also asked how to determine unbiased information and deal with fake news. They were also interested in more global issues, such as the developments around North Korea.

The Children – Ambassadors of Peace program participants said the meeting was interesting and useful.

Pyotr Lobov from Tambov asked the guest how negotiations usually go: “I have always been interested to know – I heard that talks can go on for days, months, years. It is interesting how states find a compromise, what they are ready to do, what they are willing to concede. It’s much more interesting to talk to someone who knows one hundred percent what he is talking about than to read articles on the internet without knowing who even wrote them.”

Mikhail Fyodorov from the Czech Republic said he wants to be a diplomat in the future: “It was interesting to talk to someone who works in this field. In the future, I plan on going to a Russian university and living in Russia. Although I live in Europe now, my heart is here. I often come to Russia, and Artek is a heartwarming place for me, it has a great atmosphere. I love Artek so much, it’s beyond words!”

“I really liked to hear someone who knows his job talk to us about his work,” Angelina Ruiz Garcia from Moscow shared her impressions. “I think it would be a good idea to meet with such people more often, because my generation learns a lot from the internet, and not directly from the sources. At such meetings, we get more reliable information.”

The young participants found the meeting so interesting that they did not let Maxim Buyakevich go for a long time and continued to bombard him with questions. For the future diplomats, talking with an experienced worker in this field was a big thing and a wonderful experience that will come in handy in the future.

September 16, 2019