On 16th April 2024, Tuesday, International Youth Forum 'InterYes 4.0' took place online under the official BRICS Russia Chairmanship 2024.
Akil Mohammad, Founder and Chairperson of the International Youth Edu-Skills Foundation and Deputy Head of the Russia-BRICS Project Office was the co-moderator of the forum along with Diana Kovela, Deputy Head of the "Russia - BRICS" Project office for International Youth cooperation, Deputy Director – Head of the International Relations Department, “Ulyanovsk – Capital of Culture” Foundation.
International Youth Edu-Skills Foundation (IYESF) joined the forum as the information partner.
The forum started with Akil Mohammad and Diana Kovela introducing the forum to the speakers and participants present there. The moderators explained that the purpose of this forum is to learn and understand international relations better. they also informed that the forum would be divided into 3 sections - expert session, case session and brainstorming session.
After the introduction, Mr Pavel Knyazev, Ambassador-at-large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Embassy, gave a welcome speech where he hoped that the forum would help promote Russia's chairmanship for BRICS 2024.
The very first speaker for the forum was Valeria Chernogorodova, head of the international activities department of the Youth Projects and Programs of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs. Highlighting the importance of public diplomacy, she mentioned the need to strengthen international relations by working and cooperating with youth from different countries. Concerning the efforts made, she recalled how large-scale events like global forums and world youth festivals are organised every year. She concludes her speech with hopes that the BRICS youth summit will announce more opportunities that would promote youth exchanges.
The following speaker was Prof. Dr. Yunfei Zhang, an Assistant Professor at China Agriculture University. his presentation was focused on Chinese youth public diplomacy. he emphasised the supporting policies in the country towards public diplomacy opportunities like the National Public diplomacy "Young Leaders" winter camp that has been held annually since 2016 to provide a platform for young students to enhance their leadership skills and practice public diplomacy.
The next speaker was Mr. Nitesh Kumar Mishra, joint secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. he talked about youth as agents of change and goodwill ambassadors. in his speech, he made a strong case for 'soft power' and its importance in shaping a country. Promoting cross-cultural understanding and seeing diplomacy as a tool to promote peace and unity, were all specified in his inspiring speech. He was followed by Svetlana K. Smirnova, Chairman of the General Council of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly. Introducing public diplomacy, she explained that it involves interactions between citizens of different countries outside formal diplomatic channels. Introducing some of the projects towards public diplomacy, she pointed out the 'Eurasiada' where international events are organised in the format of sports competitions and cultural events and also introduced the Eurasian Youth Assembly.
Mr Nilson Florentino Junior, Director of Transversal Public Youth Policies, Brazil was the subsequent speaker at the forum followed by Dr Abdalla Al Batesh, Assistant Minister for Sports and Youth and lastly, Mr Mahdi Tinai Tehrani
After all the speeches were completed, the first session of the forum concluded with a Q&A.
Moving on to the next section of the forum, the 'case session', very engaging presentations were made by: Pavel Antipoc, on the importance of AI in overcoming cultural and language barriers; Dr Jayakumar Venkatesan on space diplomacy in BRICS+ countries and India; Tshepo Morabane, Director of stakeholder relations at South African BRICS Youth Association; Kira Ivanova, Coordinator of the Russia BRICS project office for International Youth Cooperation; Dr Yericho Berhanu, PhD, Academic Program Director of Banga University, on Youth and Ethiopia's diplomacy and lastly, Dr Taghizadeh from Islamic Republic of Iran.
The last session in the forum was the brainstorming session on "opportunities to strengthen youth ties", where the participants were divided into small groups and tasked to brainstorm their ideas and later present them in the forum. this session was led by Lyubov Saveleyva, founder and head of the International Friendship Club's Association.
The forum officially came to an end with moderators thanking the participants for their active participation during the session. The forum was attended by more than 100 participants from 49 countries.