Valdai Club

On August 26 at 11:00 a.m. MSK (GMT+3), the Valdai Discussion Club will hold an online conference in partnership with the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ISRS), titled "Opportunities for Russia and Central Asian States in Afghanistan". The event will not be open to the media.

This conference is already the second in the framework of the partnership between the Valdai Club and the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The partnership began in November 2019, when the X Asian Conference of the Valdai Club, organised jointly with ISRS, took place in Samarkand.

This time around, 15 leading experts in the field of international relations, economics, security and regional studies from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will take part in the conference.

A civil armed confrontation has been going on in Afghanistan for 40 years. At the same time, it remains important with respect to the security interests of regional and global powers. Now in Afghanistan, an understanding is being formed that the first place on the agenda should be internal stabilisation. Preparations are continuing for the first round of peace talks between the Afghan authorities and the Taliban. For the states of Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, the transport and logistics potential of Afghanistan opens up opportunities to partially overcome continental isolation and create new production chains.

For Russia, Afghanistan is important in matters of security in Central Eurasia, and also acts as an important link in the logistics system. China sees Afghanistan as an opportunity for investment and a secure neighbour to its Muslim regions. The United States, in turn, largely considers the Afghan problem not so much from the point of view of security but as central to relations with the largest powers of Eurasia - China, Russia and India. Washington is interested in creating opportunities for the Central Asian states to diversify its political and economic partnerships.

Within the framework of the conference, the expert discussion will be developed in two main areas: the prospects for a peaceful settlement of the situation in Afghanistan through the prism of cooperation between Russia and the countries of Central Asia, as well as multilateral cooperation in the peaceful reconstruction of Afghanistan, and the country's integration into regional trade and economic ties.

The conference will be attended by:

Akramdjan Nematov, First Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic and Segional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan;

Sanat Kushkumbayev, Deputy Director of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

Emilbek Kaptagaev, Director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies of the Kyrgyz Republic; 

Komroni Jamolidin Khidoyatzoda, Deputy Head of the Department for the Study of Regional Security Problems of the Centre for Strategic Research under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan; 

Andrey Bystritsky, Chairman of the Board of the Valdai Club Foundation; 

Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Valdai Club Foundation; 

Timofey Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; 

Mikhail Konarovsky, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Leading Research Fellow at the Centre for East Asian and SCO Studies and the Institute for International Studies of the MGIMO University and others.