MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. More and more people from friendly countries in Africa and Asia want to study in Russia and learn the Russian language, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
"I understand students who want to go receive education in our country," she told students at the MGIMO Gorchakov Lyceum. "You saw that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has recently paid several visits to Africa and Asia. The Russia-Africa summit was recently held in St. Petersburg, with a great many bilateral meetings being held on its sidelines. Each time, this or that country asks to increase the quota for its students at our universities. We have such statistics and the trends are obvious."
According to Zakharova, students from Africa and China are interested in studying Russian for a number of reasons. "For China, this is a natural partnership. We have the second-longest shared border with China, the geopolitical and economic advantages are obvious, our countries have similar approaches to the basic principles of international relations, we have fantastic perspectives, the resource base and so on," she went on to say. "The same can be said about Africa: we are on different continents and are separated by a long distance but, again, we have vast potential for cooperation, hence, their desire to study."
She also noted a growing interest in the Russian language and education among compatriots living abroad. "Our compatriots or descendants of those who were linked with the Russian language in the past want their children to learn Russian. A couple of years ago, I came to Latin America for consultations between our ministries and the first question was when Russia planned to open a school. It was Argentina specifically. We have embassy schools, but such schools were set up as schools for children of embassy employees and they physically cannot admit all those who want to study," she said, adding that compatriots want their children to be surrounded by a Russian environment.