Ambassador of Bahrain Visits ASU

His Excellency Ahmed Abdulrahman Al Saati, Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the Russian Federation, visited Astrakhan State University and met Dr. Konstantin Markelov, our Acting Rector.

During his visit to ASU, the distinguished guest was accompanied by two Russian officials – Mr. Denis Afanasiev (Minister of International & Foreign Economic Relations of Astrakhan Region) and Mr. Leonid Ogul (Deputy of the Russian Federal Parliament). His Excellency was shown numerous facilities of ASU; he was told about our main activities. It was especially interesting for the Ambassador to learn that of 12, 000 students of our University, 1, 800 are foreign citizens.

After the excursion, the two parties discussed areas of further cooperation. Our Acting Rector pointed out that all the necessary conditions for comfortable studies of foreign students at ASU have been provided: we have our Department of Preliminary Education of Foreign Citizens, we provide our foreign guests with most modern rooms at our hotel facility; we have numerous labs and lecture halls, as well as sports and catering facilities. “Many foreign universities are our partners; we have a number of double-diploma programs”, Dr. Markelov said. “We coordinate our activities with the Regional Government to meet the needs of oil-and-gas, shipbuilding, and other industries. We are open for cooperation; we’ll be glad to see you as our new partner”.

In his turn, His Excellency thanked management of ASU for a warmhearted welcome and for an interesting excursion. He expressed a high interest in cooperation in the field of research and education; he remarked that he could see a number of advantages for Bahraini students to study at Astrakhan State University: Astrakhan is geographically closer to Bahrain than many other Russian cities, the range of specialties that ASU offers meets the needs of his country, while the costs of studies are reasonable. “I expect a group of our students to come to ASU this September. I’m sure our partnership in education will be just a beginning of our productive interaction in a number of areas”, he added.

At the end of the meeting, the parties negotiated to sign a cooperation agreement.