On November 10–16, Lima, Peru’s capital city, hosted the APEC “Voices of the Future” Youth Forum. Russia was represented by the World Youth Festival Directorate staff and members of International Friendship Clubs of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Tatarstan and Mordovia.

The Forum serves as a platform for interaction among young people from APEC countries, involvement in current economic processes and support for future leaders of the region. It brought together 120 delegates from 21 APEC economies: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and USA.

As part of the Forum, representatives of Russia spoke about the WYF Directorate’s work and international projects that young people from different countries can participate in. Members of the delegation held a meeting at the Russian House which featured National Secretary for Youth Affairs Carlos Jesus Vilela Del Carpio and WYF-2024 alumni. The latter talked about the role of Russia and Peru in shaping a multipolar world. The Festival alumni presented the representatives of the Directorate with a plaque of appreciation for developing youth cooperation between the countries.

The delegates held talks at the Russian Embassy in the Republic of Peru, where they spoke about holding the International Youth Forum 2025, and took part in the cultural programme by presenting national costumes of different Russia’s regions and teaching the participants from other countries about outstanding Russian people of art, education and science.

As part of the Cultural Partnership programme, the youth of Mordovia introduced the delegation from Peru to the culture, history and traditions of Russia at the WYF-2024. After the Festival, their cooperation has been actively developing within International Friendship Clubs.

“Like the World Youth Festival, such international events introduce young people to the diversity of cultures and help build horizontal connections and expand networks of contacts across the world. For this purpose, it’s important to establish communication with representatives of foreign delegations and develop friendship among countries. For example, we met the participants of the WYF-2024 from Peru. One of them, German Lizandro, visited Saransk as part of the regional programme, and now we have met him in his home country, where he showed us around the city and the Inca Culture Centre. Thanks to the Forum, I learned that many countries are interested in the Russian culture and learn Russian at universities,” shared representative of the International Friendship Club of Mordovia Veronika Shichkina.

Following the Forum, a joint youth declaration was signed by participants from different countries. It reflected main areas of cooperation, including the fields of technology and entrepreneurship.

Let us remind you, International Friendship Clubs is a flagship project of the World Youth Festival Directorate. They were launched across the country as part of the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation on preservation and development of the post-festival legacy. Today, over 70 Friendship Clubs have been opened across Russia. They bring together the youth of Russia’s regions and 189 foreign countries that participated in the World Youth Festival.

Overview:

The World Youth Festival took place on March 1–7, 2024 in Sirius, according to the Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the development of international youth cooperation. The WYF-2024 brought together 20,000 young leaders from 190 countries.

On the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, the WYF will be held in Russia on a regular basis – once in six years. Also, every six years 10,000 young people from all over the world will get together at the International Youth Festival, and in between, international themed gatherings and events will be held under the auspices of the WYF. Festival events of various formats will be held in Russia annually.

According to the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation on preservation and development of the Festival legacy, the World Youth Festival Directorate continues work aimed at strengthening international youth cooperation.