On December 25, at the  Regional Center for the Development of Public Diplomacy and International Relations named after Yevgeniy M. Primakov, students of Samara University tried their hand at the intellectual and business game SCO Model.

The SCO model is a symbiosis of a scientific conference and a role–playing game in which participants reproduce the work of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Students of 1-4 courses in the specialty “International Relations” acted as delegates from the member states of the organization, which include India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The delegates defended their country’s position on the issue on the agenda. Following the meeting, a resolution was adopted, which contained recommendations for solving the problem of regional security.

Before the event, Mikhail M. Leonov, Prorector for Educational Work at Samara University, Alexander Y. Nesterov, Executive Director of the Socio-Humanitarian Institute, and Yaroslav A. Golubinov, Executive Director of the Faculty of History, made a welcoming speech.

The organizers of the event managed to recreate the atmosphere of these meetings, where the destinies of states and peoples are being decided, further ways of joint development of the countries of Central Asia, the Russian Federation, India and China are being built.

After the game, the organizers awarded the “Best delegate”, which was Aida Logmanova, the “Best performance” – Fakiri Ahmad, the “Best question” asked by the participant – Nikolai Tatarovsky and the “Best answer” to the opponents’ questions – Shakurova Guzyalia. The jury also established an additional nomination “The best delegation according to the participants”. By open voting, the delegations of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were recognized as winners.

The event was held taking into account the established sanitary and epidemiological restrictions.

«The SCO 2020 model is the first model in which I participated. It was incredibly interesting to plunge into the atmosphere of diplomacy, negotiations and discussions. The game taught me to defend my position, ask questions correctly and answer them. As an international student, I am sure that such events are very useful, since all knowledge and skills are better perceived in practice than in theory. Despite the official format, there was a friendly atmosphere during the event, for which I would like to thank the organizers of the model. I believe that the SCO 2020 model was successful, it brought a lot of positive emotions and interesting acquaintances! I would like to have more such events»

Aida Logmanova (Head of the delegation of Uzbekistan)

«In fact, we believe that holding such scientific, cultural and intellectual games at the university is the most useful and effective for students. Such events increase the intellectual level of each student. For us, participation in the SCO Model was incredibly effective. We studied the SCO member countries and learned more about them. It was a wonderful experience. Our delegation is grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Model»

Fakir Ahmad (Head of the Delegation of Tajikistan)

Source: Samara University