On June 27, Moscow State University’s Institute of Asian and African Studies hosted representatives of the Armenian Union of Russia, Black Sea and Caspian Region Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences.

At the sitting, a resolution was taken to open a Department of Armenian Language and Armenian Studies at the Institute.

Oriental studies at Moscow University having started as early as the 1750s, IAAS followed the 200-year tradition when it was established in 1956 when a few departments branched off the Faculty of History and the Faculty of Philology. The Institute of Asian and African Studies is the leading Russian center for training specialists in Oriental Studies in general and in particular countries and regions of Asia and Africa.

The Institute comprises 18 Departments: Arabic Philology; Indian Philology; Iranian Philology; Chinese Philology; Turkish Philology; Philology of South-East Asia, Korea and Mongolia; Japanese Philology; History and culture of Japan, Economy and Economic geography of Asian and African countries; History of Near and Middle East, International Economic Relations; History of Far East and South-East Asia; History of China; History of South Asia; African Studies; Politology of Oriental countries; European Languages; Hebrew Studies.