Valdai Club

Russia and China bear a special responsibility for establishing the foundations of stability and security in Eurasia, as well as on a global scale, and even beyond our planet. At the same time, the bedrock of good-neighbourly relations between the Russian Federation and the PRC, is an often unfairly criticised arms control instrument - the Shanghai and Moscow Agreements on Border Military Activities and the Russian-Chinese Agreement on the Notification of Missile and Rocket Launches.

The Russian chairmanship in P5 can be used to maintain this format and ensure the mutual communication of important signals while confirming the readiness of all those involved to look for ways to reduce strategic risks, as well as de-escalate and reduce tensions in relations between nuclear powers without trying to score fleeting political points, writes Dmitry Stefanovic

Starting in February 2022, the developments in Ukraine have rapidly escalated into a military conflict on a scale that Europe hasn’t seen since World War II. The conflict involves large concentrations of ground forces and a broad range of modern weapons. It is radically different from the conflicts of the past few decades, when technologically advanced powers more or less successfully conducted military operations against a technologically much weaker adversary.

The worsening international military and political situation compels experts, time and time again, to focus on missile defenses. Heightened missile threats stimulate the development of defensive capabilities. Traditionally, missile defense is seen as a destabilization factor as well. The purpose of this paper is to identify fundamental trends and key problem areas and present proposals for potential solutions to minimize the negative implications of missile defense development for international security.

Nuclear deterrence will remain a very uncomfortable but key factor in international military-political relations. This state of affairs can hardly be called ideal, but the idealistic concepts of global peace do not pass the test of harsh reality, writes Valdai Club expert Dmitry Stefanovich.