WYF-2024 Announced the Launch of the Secretariat of the International Young Diplomats Association

Within the World Youth Festival, the VII Forum of Young Diplomats was held on March 5 to announce the launch of the Secretariat of the International Association of Young Diplomats.

According to Konstantin Kolpakov, Chairman of the Council of Young Diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Young Diplomats Forum started in 2017 in the same area where WYF-2024 is now taking place.

According to him, this year's program of the forum is very rich, various sessions are planned.

"Participants in our global forum included 150 people from more than 60 countries around the world. The result of our seventh global forum will be the official launch of the secretariat of the international association of young diplomats. This initiative was proposed exactly seven years ago," said Konstantin Kolpakov.

He noted that the process of establishing the secretariat had been a long one because of the approval process.

"We negotiated our organization's charter with all members without exception. With all States that in one way or another participated and worked in our forums. So there was a lot of counseling that had to be done. Now we can finally announce the launch of the secretariat with great joy," emphasized Konstantin Kolpakov.

He noted that the secretariat will be based in Moscow. The opening of its branches is planned in the future.

Among the significant projects of the entrepreneurs' forum was the project of diplomatic match organized with the stars of the festival and diplomats from all over the world. The "Friends of Russia Club" project was also named among the unique projects.

The "Friends of Russia Club" has primarily Russian objectives. A huge number of Russian schoolchildren participate in our programs, where the main prize is a trip to the Artek camp. "Artek" in 2025 will be 100 years old. This is a legendary institution, a bastion of friendship, and, in fact, youth diplomacy was born in Artek in the 80s," said Roman Romanov, coordinator of the "World of Opportunities" party project of the All-Russian Political Party "United Russia".

He recalled the story of the American schoolgirl Samantha Smith, who became world famous thanks to her correspondence with the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Yuri Andropov.

"Probably everyone knows Samantha Smith, knows the situation that led to her coming to Artek. She asked (I remind foreign journalists) Andropov, General Secretary, if it was true that the Soviet Union wanted a nuclear war with America, and Andropov invited her to visit Artek and the Soviet Union. As a result, Samantha Smith became a well-known ambassador for peace. Generally speaking, our "People of Artek" campaign, which was launched yesterday by Sergey Lavrov, is aimed precisely at the realization of Russian priorities in the field of international humanitarian cooperation and the formation of an infrastructure of contacts between young people of all countries," said Roman Romanov.

He also added that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had asked schoolchildren around the world to participate in the competition.

"The contest consists of such a task: a high school child makes a promotional lesson about Artek, talks about this camp in his school. He does research on people from his country who has ever been to Artek and talks about his findings at his school. We also offer additional activities. Last year we already conducted the first stage of the campaign, when 69 schoolchildren from different countries spent the summer at Artek's international shifts. Together with participants of international shifts, 100 thousand children visited Artek", Roman Romanov noted.

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The World Youth Festival is taking place at the Sirius Federal Territory from March 1 to 7, 2024, as per the decree issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at fostering international youth cooperation.

The Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) is the organizer of the World Youth Festival, with the Directorate of the World Youth Festival serving as the operator for WYF-2024.