Irkutsk State University hosted a meeting for the head of the University, Igor Bychkov, and Peter Priputen, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Republic in the Russian Federation. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the prospects of cooperation between various organizations of Slovakia and ISU.

The First Deputy Governor of the Irkutsk region, Vladimir Dorofeev, Chairman of the Board of Rectors of the Irkutsk region, Andrei Khomenko, and other officials attended the meeting. Vice-rector for Research and International Affairs, Konstantin Grigorichev, and Director of the Institute of Philology, Foreign Languages, and Media Communication, Marina Tashlykova, represented ISU.

The meeting took place within the framework of the official visit of Peter Priputen to the Irkutsk region. The Ambassador emphasized the keen interest shown in Slovakia for studying the Russian language. At the University the participants of the meeting presented their resources and discussed the joint programs designed to teach the Slovak language in ISU and the Russian language in Slovakia.

While speaking about the importance of partnership relations, Igor Bychkov, acting rector of ISU and member of Russian Academy of Sciences pointed out that: "on the one hand, it will provide new impetus to further development of higher education in the Irkutsk region, improve the University ranking and contribute to its further development. On the other hand, we as equal partners will aim to meet the challenges our countries face”.

The head of ISU outlined ways to collaborate. Peter Priputen also noted they were interested in this development and the proposed initiatives are to be formalized in detail.