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Meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Brussels

On October 15th, 2013 representatives of “New Youth Policy” had taken part in a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation - Sergey Lavrov. The meeting took place at the Russian embassy in the Kingdom of Belgium. Belgian compatriot organisations attended the meeting. The Minister was warmly welcomed, and was presented with gifts from Ossetian artists and a rug, decorated with his portrait.

The guests asked Mr. Lavrov various questions, which he answered, as always, professionally, diplomatically, and interestingly.

A compelling question was asked by one of the participants on the meeting: why doesn’t Russia use the presence of patriotic compatriots, living in various countries of Europe, in its foreign policy, like it is done by the US and Israel. This experience could help reach mutual understanding between ministries of Russia and the European Union. Lavrov answered that Russia is “being overly delicate” and does not use the “agents of influence” strategy.

We, the participants of “New Youth Policy”, support the opinion of questioner, in that the Russian position should also be stood up for abroad. However, we believe that another approach should be used: it is necessary to be open for dialogue, freely suggesting one’s own values, and not in any way imposing upon others the views, which one side regards as true. Precisely this approach was mentioned as a conception of multiregional block development in the “G-Zero world and Putin” article: http://newyouthpolicy.org/en/articles-en/115-g-zero-world-and-putin-en: 

A multiregional block differs from a conglomerate by the fact that the choice of the civilizational goal vectors and development of conception of their achievement are not centralized, but are distributed throughout the block. Even if a regional center focuses in its administrative authority over affairs of the whole block, the ideas, goals and individual conceptions to achieve them, are drawn from all over the area of the multiregional block. Therefore cultural diversity is in the block’s vital interests. And unlike the conglomerate, which replaces national cultures by a single unified culture, the block supports and participates in development of cultures, and particularly in those parts, that are similar to ideals of this type of civilization.

Expansion of the block is also different than that of the conglomerate. If [the conglomerate] breaks the goal vector of the annexed piece and replaces it with goals of the inter-regional center, the block, firstly, inscribes the goal vector, close to the ideals of the piece, into its own — adds them to its goal vector. This means in effect, that the block steps on the way of assistance to the piece in achieving these goals by sharing responsibility for them. People are drawn to the one who helps them sincerely. Therefore, joining a multiregional block is a matter of time, necessary for the applicant to self-cleanse their internal problems, often associated with the desire of country’s "elites" to fit into a cross-regional conglomerate.

Towards the end of the meeting Mark Amirov, the representative of the international not-for-profit organisation “New Youth Policy” in Belgium, was given an opportunity to express his thanks for support to all Belgian compatriot organisations. He then invited the Minister to attend or to informationally support his organisation’s conference “Globalization — the new stage”.

For more information about the conference, see press release:

22.11 Conference in Brussels “Globalization — the new stage”: http://newyouthpolicy.org/en/news-en/183-2211globalizationnewstage-en