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On 23 December 2024, an extended meeting of the General Council of the International Union of Non-Governmental Organizations “Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly” (EAPA) took place. Members of the EAPA General Council and the invited experts summed up the results of the outgoing year, outlined plans for 2025 and made proposals for the development of the organization.
In his opening remarks, Secretary General of the Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly Andrey Belianinov noted the expansion of the geography of the Assembly's activities, which led to the renaming the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly into the Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly. This significant event took place at the initiative of representatives of African countries, who actively joined the Assembly, participated in events and demonstrated their readiness to participate in integration processes aimed at achieving peace and harmony. Representatives of Latin American countries were no less actively involved in the work of the organization, what opens up new prospects for work.
Not only Russia, but also many countries of the world face the fact that in the new world order the rules of the game have not yet been defined, so the tools of official state diplomacy are limited. Against this background, the importance and possibilities of public diplomacy, the values of which are promoted and developed by EAPA, are growing. On the margins of these events, the most acute and topical issues are discussed, sometimes as openly and boldly as the state authorities do not dare to do.
For courage, heroism, political activity for the reunification of Russia and Crimea Andrey Bellyaninov was honored with a state award dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the “Crimean Spring”, which was presented to him by a member of the General Council of the Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly, Head of the Assembly Representative Office in the Republic of Crimea, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea - Permanent Representative of the Republic of Crimea to the President of the Russian Federation Georgy Muradov. He thanked the Assembly and personally Andrey Belianinov for the tremendous work being done with the public organizations of Crimea.
Svetlana Smirnova, Chairperson of the General Council of the Eurasiaт and Africaт Peoplesэ Assembly, presented a report on the work done by the Assembly in 2024: more than 330 events were held with the participation of representatives of 96 countries. The most significant events were the Assembly Days in Tajikistan, the Public Diplomacy Forum “Everyone's Responsibility for a Shared Future” held as part of the Ugra Economic Forum supported by the Government of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, panel sessions at the BRICS International Municipal Forum, working meetings with representatives of the SCO National People's Diplomacy Centers in different countries, and others.
During the year 116 new members joined the Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly, 22 new cooperation agreements were concluded with partners from foreign countries, including educational institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations, mass media and business companies. Over the years, the Assembly has concluded more than 250 partnership agreements with organizations from more than 40 countries.
In 2024, such areas as cultural diplomacy, “diplomacy of happiness” - by the Department of Happiness (this area can be considered the Assembly's know-how) were actively developed. Work with youth is also a priority: The Assembly implements the projects “Eurasia Kids”, ‘New Generation of Eurasia’, the festival “Sunflower”, holds business games. The work with young activists of civil society is part of all projects and activities of the Assembly.
The activities of the Immortal Memory project aimed at preserving the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War continued to develop in 2024. The XIX Vladimir Menshov International Film Festival “Won Together” attracted more than 150 participants from 50 countries. Also there were held events aimed at preserving traditional family values.
Many of the events held became a platform for developing the concept of the most important event of 2024 - the World Public Summit, which is an effective instrument of international discussion for the integration of civil society around the world.
“The Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly is a public integration model of the Greater Eurasian Partnership, and our President has spoken about the need to develop such models,” - Svetlana Smirnova emphasized. - Representatives from more than 60 countries have joined the dialogue, and our task is to scale up this experience. The World Public Summit will certainly contribute to this. I urge Council participants to actively engage in the preparation of the event, and in the future to hold this most important event annually in different countries.”
She also noted that at the Public Diplomacy Forum they reached a preliminary agreement on a venue for the 20 26 Summit in Austria.
Yevgeny Primakov, Head of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo), thanked the Assembly for effective cooperation and highly appreciated the role of partnership of the organisations that jointly promote public diplomacy and hold numerous youth events. Separately, Evgeny Alexandrovich thanked the Secretary General of the Assembly for his participation in the activities of the Rossotrudnichestvo Public Council.
He also expressed hope that in 2025, when the institutionalized public diplomacy will celebrate its 100th anniversary, the organizations will join forces to work on events promoting this activity. The need for such events has already been confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other responsible agencies. After the speech Andrey Belianinov presented Evgeny Primakov with the Assembly Certificate of Honor and suggested to think about holding a conference or round table for representatives of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.
Igor Kapyrin, Director of the Department for Relations with Federation Subjects, Parliament and Public Associations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, expressed support for the Assembly's activities. He praised the wide network of the EAPA's international relations and the ambitious plans for 2025.
H.E. Mr Julio Antonio Garmendia Peña, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cuba to the Russian Federation, spoke at the EAPA General Council about the Assembly's crucial role in establishing cultural and educational exchange. He was supported by all participants of the meeting, as the task of increasing the number of foreign students in Russia is extremely important for the establishment of intercultural ties, a driving force for the future development of science, economy, exchange of best social practices and, in general, co-operation between peoples and states.
The call for peace and active friendship between the countries was expressed by representatives of Arab countries: Yusif Mohamed Zeynal, Member of the General Council of the Eurasia and Africa Peoples’ Assembly, Chairman of the Union of Graduates of Soviet and Russian Universities in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Member of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and Mohamed Ali Almuaini, Member of the General Council of the Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly, President of the UAE Institute for Cultural Diplomacy. They expressed great appreciation for the attention to the Arab countries, promised to regularly share the results of the meetings of the Arab League ambassadors, and reaffirmed their readiness to extend a hand of help and friendship to all countries without exception.
The representatives of the Arab world assured that they are ready to join all the projects of the Assembly, because all should be together and strive for peace, and this is the role of people's diplomacy, which can give the development of international relations even more than politics - through culture, sports, science, youth.
Another important area for rapprochement is the support of reading culture, which was mentioned separately by Igor Krupko, Deputy Director of the Centre for the Rapprochement of Cultures under the auspices of UNESCO. He read out a greeting from the Director of the Centre, Olzhas Suleimenov, which, in particular, said:
“The processes that block the dissemination of books and reading in general must be combated. Our future must be a conscious dependence on reading as the basis of development. Post-literate civilization is the beginning of degradation, the path to the loss of the epithet ‘reasonable’ (sapiens) by man (homo). It is necessary to revive the system of social and state order in the sphere of book distribution”.
Co-Chair of the General Council of the Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly, member of the State Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Alexandra Ochirova in her speech emphasized the plans for 2025.
“Having such a high representation, the Assembly could formulate strategic directions for the formation of a new world and, using its status, set and promote relevant intergovernmental, scientific tasks,” - she believes and notes the topics she would like to see on the agenda of EAPA and the whole world. Among them: the development of future models of civilization; the role of civil society in shaping a multipolar world; and humanitarian modernization.
Alexander Ageyev, Deputy Secretary General, Chairman of the Expert Council of the Eurasia and Africa Peoples’ Assembly, Director General of the Institute of Economic Strategies, also spoke about the key areas of the Assembly's activities in the coming year. In addition to the fact that it is important for the EAPA Expert Council to ‘surface’ in 2025, to make its activities visible, it is important to activate within the three tracks: research, expert and media. He proposed to create an independent rating system as an institution for global regulation of markets and co-operation, to work out development scenarios for Eurasia, development scenarios for Africa, and development scenarios for the Caribbean. Within the second area it is proposed to combine humanitarian initiatives, innovation initiatives, project strategy of the Assembly, issues of digitalization and geographical configuration. An international media center at the Assembly could work to promote these initiatives.
The President of ANO “Georgia Abroad” Igor Giorgadze also took part in the General Council and invited the participants to hold a joint dinner in March-April 2025. Vladimir Platonov, President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, noted the importance of the Assembly in the development of international trade relations.
Sergey Ryakhovsky, a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, chief bishop of the Centralized Religious Organization “Russian United Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals)”, joined the Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly and proposed to create a Spiritual Council under the EAPA, which would be engaged in public diplomacy through religious organizations, he also raised the topic of human security, protection of universal human values and proposed to create an Association of descendants of the defenders and liberators of Crimea in honour of the 80th anniversary of the Crimean independence. Igor Khalevinsky, Chairman of the Association of Russian Diplomats, Ambassador at Large of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, proposed to include environmental issues at the most global level in the agenda for 2025. Margarita Lyange, a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, shared practices of cultural exchange involving young people - and her speech included such surprising combinations as Chukchi rock and Tuvan jazz.
At the end of the meeting, EAPA Executive Director Sergei Khanutin was elected to the Assembly's General Council by unanimous decision. The participants also adopted new editions of the Regulations on the Supreme Advisory Council and the Code of Ethics of the Assembly members.