"Rethinking China’s Foreign Policy" special course

On September 20-25, 2018, Institute of Oriental Studies of NAS RA, hosted a special course "Rethinking China’s Foreign Policy", organized by "China-Eurasia" Council for Political and Strategic Research in cooperation with the Institute of Oriental Studies, NAS RA and the Department of Oriental Studies, ISEC, NAS RA. The main purpose of the course is to comprehensively discuss modern China's foreign policy, exchange the ideas on the improvement of Armenian-Chinese relations with the help of foreign and Armenian specialists working with "China-Eurasia" Council for Political and Strategic Research and transfer the knowledge and skills to Armenian young professionals. 21 specialists won the opportunity to be invited to participate as students in this course. In his opening remarks, Mher Sahakyan noted: "Presently, China's role in global politics and economy is growing as a powerful force, which is an emerging superpower, in this context it is important to conduct studies in Armenia on a powerful state of the East, consequently "Rethinking China's foreign policy " special course aims at providing knowledge to researchers, students, government officials, in order to develop the Armenian-Chinese relations. The advisor of PRC Ambassador of Armenia Zhou Hongyou made a welcoming speech at the organizing committee's special session. He spoke about the further development of the Armenian-Chinese relations, highlighted the strengthening of China-Armenia friendly relations. Head of the Chair of Oriental Studies of ISEC NAS RA Robert Ghazaryan congratulated everyone on the opening of the event and mentioned that the research and analysis of China's modern history has important political, economic and scientific significance for the scientific, political and analytical spheres of the Republic of Armenia. In that sense, a special course will fill the gap in some ways. The lectures were delivered by foreign prominent specialists, Dr. Tughrul Keskin (Professor, Director, Center for Global Governance, Shanghai University), Ivan Zuenko (Research Fellow, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Expert Carnegie Moscow Center) Dr.Kaneshko Sangar (Specialist in the field of International Relations), Dai Yulong (PhD Candidate, Nanjing University), Minchao Hua (PhD Candidate, Nanjing University). From the Armenian side, Dr. Mher Sahakyan (Head of the "China-Eurasia" Council for Political and Strategic Research” Foundation), Dr. Vardan Atoyan (ASUE, Vice President, "Amberd" Research Center), Dr. Anahit Parzyan (Cybersecurity expert), Dr. Anna Zalinyan (Sinologist), Mihran Papazian (CEO at Brushette, USA, Adviser, ChinaHAY) presented their studies. At the end of the course, Mher Sahakyan, founder of the "Rethinking China’s Foreign Policy" special course and head of the organizing committee stated: within these five days, we succeeded in organizing a special course during which foreign and Armenian leading specialists in the field of China’s foreign policy successfully passed their knowledge and experience to Armenian emerging young researchers. I hope the audience will use this knowledge and skills in order to develop and strengthen relations between China and Armenia. Robert Ghazaryan, vice director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the NAS RA, co organizer of the course, in his concluding remarks noted that the special course was accomplished by the participants for five days, with the help of Armenian and foreign scholars, the participants gained skills in China’s modern history, politics, internal and external relations, : It was also mentioned that sinology is a very modern scientific direction and the participants are able to use their knowledge in different spheres.

The 19 participants of the course collected the necessary points and awarded certificates and professional literature.