4th annual conference of the Middle East Dialogue of the Valdai International Discussion Club, titled “Islam in Politics: Ideology or Pragmatism?”, will take place in Marrakesh, Morocco, on May 14-15.
Issues of commonalities and differences in the Muslim communities of Russia and Canada, as well as problems of their integration into the legal frameworks of their respective countries, were the main topics of discussion at the conference Muslims in Russia, the CIS, and Canada: Cohabitation and Cooperation
The conference Muslims in Russia, the CIS, and Canada: Cohabitation and Cooperation presented by Carleton’ Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Department of Political Science, the Carleton Centre for the Study of Islam, and the Valdai Discussion Club is to be held on March 8, 2013 at the Carleton University, Ottawa.
The analytical report “Russia’s Economy: after Transformation, before Modernization” was prepared after discussions at the Valdai Discussion Club Summit held on October 21–22, 2012. The report incorporates many of the conclusions on Russia’s political development contained in the 2011 Valdai report “Russia Should Not Miss Its Chance: Development Scenarios”.
The Russia Development Index (Valdai Index) reflects the combined opinion of the world's leading experts on Russia as regards Russia’s political, economic, social, cultural and international performance. The annual poll aims to study changes in Russia’s development trends over a year. It is important that respondents assess not the current situation, but changes.
The analytical report “Military Reform: Toward the New Look of the Russian Army” summarizes the results of the conference of the Valdai Discussion Club Defense and Security section titled “Modernization of Russia’s Armed Forces and Cooperation in International Security” which was held on May 25-27, 2011 in Moscow.
05/24/201213:40 Russia was the first country with which India established a strategic partnership and in the year 2010 during the 11th Summit, India and Russia elevated their relationship to a “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership” status.
05/21/201216:11 G8 summits are hard to quantify in terms of their precise role in international politics. They can play this informal role of allowing leaders to interact a little informally in order to come to an agreement, to come to understand each other. Sometimes in the best case scenario, leaders would find some common interest, or something.
05/15/201212:13 In the next few years Central Asia will become a focus of Russian foreign policy both where the Kremlin’s interests in the post-Soviet space are involved and, in a broader perspective, in the context of the Afghanistan factor, relations with the Asia-Pacific Region, and “friendly rivalry” with China.
04/20/201212:58 Russia is facing a difficult choice. In the early 1990s, it opted for strategic partnership with China and now has a number of bilateral obligations within the framework of the 2001 Russian-Chinese Treaty of Friendship. At the same time, Russia has been trying to balance the excessive influence of Chinese business in the Russian Far East.
04/04/201210:21 Russia is third in the world in terms of the number of its citizens who travel abroad. China is second. In 2011, some 235,000 Chinese nationals visited Russia, which was 48% higher than in 2010. It is expected that the number of tourists travelling between Russia and China in 2012 will reach 3.3 million people.
04/03/201210:06 The world economy deserves financial stability and a strict and coordinated policy on the financial side. Having a new world currency, in addition to the US$ and the Euro as key reserve currencies at present, would be beneficial as long as it meets the need for more world stability.
04/02/201215:35 BRICS showed the new ways of international cooperation. BRICS does not include any Western countries, so under the BRICS framework the discussion on the problems and prospects took place without West’s influence or interference. The views expressed during the Summit were more of non-West than anti-West.
03/26/201216:48 The most significant of Russia’s Asian relationships, the ‘strategic partnership’ with China, has expanded in recent years. But it is still a relatively modest affair. America continues to be the strategic reference point for Russian foreign policy, while the EU is by far Russia’s largest trading partner and source of foreign investment.
03/20/201212:26 There are surprises in the Strategy 2020 reform report prepared by experts for Vladimir Putin. The report sees China as a major challenge to Russian development, pushing Russia out of its traditional markets and reducing its political weight.
03/13/201211:35 The new Russian president will be confronted with complex tasks in the Asian Pacific Region. Moscow will need to preserve good relations with China, find an economic counterbalance to influential Chinese businesses in the Far East and expand its trade relations with ASEAN. The main thing is to avoid having to choose between the US and China amid mounting U.S.-China contradictions.
