Valdai Club

The first Valdai Club Russia-India conference, organised jointly with the Club’spartner, the Vivekananda Foundation, will be held on January 8 in New Delhi (at the headquarters of the  Vivekananda International Foundation at 3 San Martin Marg, Chanakyapuri).

Holding the conference in India is a qualitatively new stage in the Valdai Club’s work with the country. It was preceded by the signing on October 1, 2023 of a memorandum of understanding with the Vivekananda Foundation on the sidelines of the 20^th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club. Several experts from India have already been regular guests and participants in Valdai Club events, and Valdai Club experts from Russia have taken part in the traditional forums in India. Now, for the first time as an organisation, the Club will visit its partners from the Vivekananda Foundation.

At the first bilateral conference, the focus will be on the crisis of modern international relations and views on a possible future world order. Such an exchange with Indian partners is especially important in connection with India’s successful experience hosting the G20 summit in September 2023 in New Delhi and the upcoming Russian chairmanship of BRICS.

The one-day programme of the Russian-Indian Conference of the Valdai Club and the Vivekananda Foundation will include an open discussion, a meeting with representatives of the National Security Advisory Council, an opening session and two thematic sessions, at which experts will discuss the following issues:

• Trends in the transformation of the world order (multipolarity, regional and international security, sanctions);
• Bilateral relations between Russia and India.

The Vivekananda International Foundation is a New Delhi-based think tank which was established by leading Indian security experts, diplomats and philanthropists. Its goal is to develop innovative approaches to India's security and welfare that will enable it to play a worthy role in global affairs.

Participants: 

Venkatesh Varma, Ambassador of the Republic of India to the Russian Federation (2018–2021), honorary researcher of the Vivekananda Foundation;  Arvind Gupta, Director of the Vivekananda Foundation; Asoke Mukherjee, Honorary Research Fellow of the Vivekananda Foundation, Permanent Representative of India to the UN (2013–2015); P.Sh. Raghavan, Chairman of the Advisory Council on National Security Issues; Pankaj Saran, former Deputy National Security Advisor, Ambassador of the Republic of India to the Russian Federation (2016–2018);  Kanwal Sibal, Minister of Foreign Affairs of India (2001–2002); Nandan Unnikrishnan, Distinguished Research Fellow, Director of Eurasian Studies at the Observer Research Foundation; Rakesh Sharma, lieutenant general (ret.), honorary fellow of the Vivekananda Foundation  and others.

The Russian participants include: Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Valdai Discussion; Ivan Timofeev, Programme director of the Valdai Club; Denis Alipov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to India; Alexey Kupriyanov, head of the Center for the Indian Ocean Region of the IMEMO RAS; Lidia Kulik, researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Indian studies department at the SKOLKOVO Institute for Emerging Markets; Ruslan Mamedov, Academic Director of the Primakov Center for Foreign Policy Cooperation.

Working languages: English.

Information for the media: Dear journalists, to be accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our website. If you have any questions about the event, call +79269307763. 

Links to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VKontakte, Telegram and Dzen.