The SCO National Centre for Public Diplomacy in Russia will open a Branch in Nizhny Novgorod

The National Center for Public Diplomacy of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Russia has concluded a Cooperation Agreement with the Ministry of International and Interregional Relations of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. The result of the signed contractual document is the opening of a branch of the SCO National Center for Public Diplomacy in Russia in Nizhny Novgorod.

The signing of the Agreement took place within the International Forum “Public Diplomacy as a Tool of Soft Power in the Development of International Cooperation” on December 7 at the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum.

The document was signed by the Deputy Secretary General of the International Union of Non-Governmental Organizations "Eurasian Peoples' Assembly", Director of the SCO National Center for Public Diplomacy in Russia, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Analytical Center Stanislav Korolev and Minister of International Interregional Relations of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Olga Guseva.

“I am very glad that the Nizhny Novgorod region supported the initiative to establish a branch of the National Center for Public Diplomacy. This is the right decision, and it will certainly bear fruit for the development of international cooperation both in the region and for Russia as a whole,” said Stanislav Korolev.

“The Nizhny Novgorod region is developing international cooperation with 140 countries of the world, including in economics, trade, education, culture, ecology, and high technology. Public diplomacy in our region is developing systematically, in its most diverse manifestations: support for compatriots living abroad, the “Friendship Rally” along the route Berlin - Moscow, which has been held in the Nizhny Novgorod region since 2017, the export of Russian education and the exchange of best practices with foreign colleagues, implementation of the “School of Young Diplomat” project. I am convinced that the opening of a regional branch of the National Center for Public Diplomacy will become the basis for building a dialogue between the Nizhny Novgorod region and foreign countries,” Olga Guseva emphasized.

As Stanislav Korolev, Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly and Director of the SCO National Center for Public Diplomacy in Russia, noted, “Today, when elements of traditional diplomacy are complicated, interaction at the interregional, intermunicipal level and even at the level of rural settlements is very important. And most of the issues move into the area of public diplomacy. The agreement signed in Nizhny Novgorod will strengthen mutual trust and friendship between the Nizhny Novgorod region and regions of foreign countries. In addition, it will contribute to the expansion of international humanitarian and business cooperation.”

The SCO Center for Public Diplomacy in Russia was established on the initiative of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly with the support of the Russian Foreign Ministry.