31 July 2025, 16:47

Lukashenko urges MFA not to lose “golden reserve” of talented students

MINSK, 31 July (BelTA) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must not lose its “golden reserve” of talented international relations students from Belarusian State University (BSU), Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with heads of Belarus’ diplomatic missions, BelTA has learned.

The head of state noted that “World Economy” and “International Law” were among the most sought-after specialties during this year’s university admissions campaign. “This year, BSU’s cutoff scores for state-funded programs in these specialties reached a record 400 points. Everyone wants to become international relations specialists. Almost as popular are programs like “International Conflict Studies” and “Global Logistics” – everything we need and are discussing here,” said the president.

However, Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that Belarus’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs sometimes recruits graduates from Moscow’s MGIMO University rather than BSU. Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhenkov explained that Belarusian students are sent to MGIMO under a quota system to study rare languages.

“If this is true, if you believe BSU provides inferior training, perhaps we should stop running these programs altogether,” the head of state said.

“We primarily hire MGIMO graduates with rare language skills that are not taught at BSU,” clarified the foreign minister.

The president instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Education Ministry to thoroughly examine this situation. “We cannot have Belarus’ most talented youth enroll in our flagship university – where we restored order after 2020 – only to face closed doors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Can’t we train them in other ministries or regional executive committees first? Maksim Vladimirovich [Ryzhenkov] could recruit them later. These students are our future “golden reserve” – our most talented individuals,” the president said.