Students Host PR of Uzbekistan to the UN, Ambassador Bakhtiyor Ibragimov

On February 5, 2018, UIMF members contributed to hosting the visit of Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan to the United Nations, His Excellency, Bakhtiyor Ibragimov to Utah Valley University

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On February 5, 2018, I had the opportunity and privilege to contribute to hosting the visit of Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan to the United Nations, His Excellency, Bakhtiyor Ibragimov to Utah Valley University (UVU). I was there representing the UVU Foreign Affairs club as its president and the Youth in The Mountains Journal as its editor. This was an extremely unique opportunity for me to learn first hand about the foreign affairs priorities of Uzbekistan along with being able to ask questions directly to the Ambassador Ibragimov and discuss with him programs pursued by UVU students at the United Nations.

The meeting with the Ambassador of Uzbekistan was started from lunch with him and his fellow diplomat who accompanied him. It was a part of tradition established at UVU to get students participate at breakfasts and lunches with foreign dignitaries to learn how to build personal relationships with visiting dignitaries. During this lunch we got to learn about his background and how he came to be the top envoy of his country. He had the unique situation of living in Uzbekistan when it was still part the Soviet Union prior to it being broken up into the several countries it is today. Therefore, he had the uncommon perspective of being part of the Soviet system to then also being in Uzbekistan when the state declared its independence in 1991. What was very interesting about this talk was when we as students were able to ask the Uzbekistan’s Ambassador how this breaking up of the Soviet Union impacted Uzbekistan and what it meant for Uzbek nationality as well. This was particularly interesting to hear about because learning about how states go from communist regimes to democratic systems is something as students we learn but its completely something else when you hear about it from someone who has been through it. Additionally, I found it intriguing that the country is 90% Muslim and that Uzbekistan had such an open and tolerant position on religions present in the country that are not Muslim.

Following lunch, the Uzbek Ambassador gave a lecture on the foreign policy priorities of his country. The topics he discussed included environmental issues, trade development in Central Asia along with new initiatives Uzbekistan is trying with their close neighbor Afghanistan. These initiatives include more friendly gestures such as reopening Uzbekistan presence in Afghanistan and open regular air flight routes between the countries. These gestures are in the wish of as the Uzbek Ambassador said “peace to the future” for the ailing Afghan state.

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Ambassador Bakhtiyor Ibragimov with Rebecca Bindraban

After the lecture a group of students, members of the Utah International Mountain Forum, (UIMF), a coalition of student clubs at UVU (www.utahimf.org) including myself got to have a round table style discussion with the Ambassador Ibragimov to ask questions, and also had the opportunity to speak about what we do at UVU about the promotion of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and in particular mountain targets through the efforts of both UIMF and its particular branches such as the Sustainable Mountain Development club, undergraduate student research journal “Youth and the Mountains,” and diverse activities including the annual commemorations of the United Nations International Mountain Days on December 11^th. Ambassador Ibragimov then spoke about how important Sustainable Development Goals are not only for the global communities but also for the people in his country which is of particularly interest to me as the chief editor of the Youth in the Mountains Journal at UVU which specifically is about mountain peoples, research and perspective about life and economics of people from the mountains

Overall, it was an extraordinary opportunity to be part of such an engaged learning opportunity and to raise an awareness of the visiting dignitary of the contribution from our student community to the United Nationals agenda of global significance. It was fascinating to learn the perspective of the Uzbekistan people through their top envoy and to experience what the Ambassador of the country does regularly as the Ambassador of Uzbekistan to the United Nations.

Rebecca Bindraban, President, Foreign Affairs Club and editor, “Youth and the Mountains” journal

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Photos of the visit of the Uzbekistan’s Envoy to UVU

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UIMF MEMBERS ABOUT HOSTING VIP GUEST

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Andrew Jensen-Interacting with Ambassador Ibragimov about foreign policy priorities of Uzbekistan

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Warren-Kyle-Taking part at lunch with Ambassador Ibragimov

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Kyler Pigot and Sam Elzinga -Thanking Ambassador Ibragimov for advocacy of the mountain women

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