RUSSIA, April 7 - As part of his visit to Vietnam, Dmitry Chernyshenko met with students and Russian language teachers from two universities

As part of his visit to Vietnam, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko met with students and Russian language teachers from two universities. One of them, the Hanoi branch of the Pushkin State Institute of the Russian Language, is to be transformed into a regional centre to promote Russian in Southeast Asia.

Taking part in the meeting were Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of Russia Konstantin Mogilevsky, Deputy Minister of Education and Training of Vietnam Nguyen Van Phuc and Director of the Hanoi branch of the Pushkin State Institute of the Russian Language Nguyen Thi Thu Dat.

Russia and Vietnam have longstanding close ties in various areas of cultural cooperation, primarily in the field of education. In this regard, the Hanoi branch of the Pushkin Institute plays an important role in the cooperation between the countries, training highly qualified Russian-speaking personnel.

“The Russian language has been a bond between our countries’ cultures for many decades. Today, more than 3,000 Vietnamese students are studying at Russian universities in various specialties, from education to oil and gas exploration. The Russian Government has allocated one of the largest quotas for the current academic year: 1,000 places for Vietnamese students. And here, in Vietnam, the Hanoi branch of the Pushkin State Institute of the Russian Language has been around for more than 30 years, serving the noble mission of preserving and passing on the traditions of studying Russian. We plan to bring this work to a qualitatively new level and transform this branch into the Russian language centre for Southeast Asia,” Dmitry Chernyshenko said.

More to be posted soon...