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Diplomat must not spare himself in serving Fatherland - Lavrov

According to him, these are not just high-flown words. One cannot be a diplomat “without these qualities,” he stressed

VLADIVOSTOK, February 10 (Itar-Tass) – A diplomat must first of all love the Fatherland and must be ready not to spare himself or herself in serving it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a televised interview on Sunday.

“The real diplomat nowadays is an erudite, a person with a deep knowledge of history, and first of all of his own country, who has a good understanding of all risks and events that took place outside his own state over the recent years, centuries and millenniums,” Lavrov said in the “Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov” program on Rossiya television, already broadcast in Russia’s Far Eastern regions.

“History returns now in any region of the globe – either in the revival of religious feelings or as renewed projects of once powerful empires that later disintegrated but now can revive in other forms and alliances,” the top Russian diplomat noted. “That is why I repeat that a diplomat must know history and be an erudite person. He must have an excellent command of more than one foreign language and of course his own – Russian language, as all that we are doing in the long run is embodied in documents,” Lavrov said.

“Psychological capabilities are of course important as in this profession like in a number of others it is very important to ‘feel’ the interlocutor, whether he is ready to speak with you sincerely and in a trustworthy manner”. But all these are methods, he admitted. “First of all a diplomat must love his Fatherland and be ready not to spare himself in serving the homeland,” Lavrov stressed. According to him, these are not just high-flown words. One cannot be a diplomat “without these qualities,” he stressed.

“Of course, this profession is associated with a big number of risks,” the minister admitted. “Diplomats work in states that have become the arena of bloody crises and conflicts. Many of them risk their lives in a number of situations. This is not easy,” he stressed.

Lavrov expressed gratitude to the Russian leadership for supporting the law in which “special features of state civil service in the system of the Foreign Ministry are stated and which envisages sizable social packages, including concern for the families of those who were killed in the line of duty”.

The interview will be aired in Moscow at 23:30 Moscow time, on Sunday.