Valdai Club

On February 9, the Valdai Discussion Club, with the support of the Russian Foreign Ministry, will hold a conference titled “Collective Security in a New Era: Experience and Prospects of the CSTO”. The event will be held open to the media at the Moscow headquaters of the Club at Tsvetnoy Boulevard, 16/1.

In early January, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, which turns 20 this year, conducted its first ever peacekeeping operation in response to an attempt to destabilise Kazakhstan. Thus, CSTO has become an efficient mechanism for ensuring security. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, "the CSTO mechanism has really turned on". At the CSTO online summit, which took place on January 10 in the wake of the events in Kazakhstan, the leaders of the organisation - Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan - recognised the importance of the CSTO in modern conditions and proposed a number of moves to strengthen the organisation.

Today, almost a month after the operation in Kazakhstan, the CSTO countries are faced with the task of comprehending what happened and developing a clear understanding of the direction in which the organisation should develop further.

Thus, the Valdai Club conference will actually become a continuation of the conversation that the CSTO leaders started in January. Moreover, high-ranking representatives of the CSTO countries and the leadership of the organisation itself will take part in the event. Among the participants are: Stanislav Zas, CSTO Secretary General; Alexander Pankin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; Armen Ghevondyan, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia; Marat Syzdykov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Nuran Niyazaliev, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic; Sodiq Imomi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan.

The one-day conference will include two sessions:

• Tasks of the CSTO in the context of growing international tension: a view from the capitals (10:00-12:00 am, Moscow Time);
• Lessons from crises and the security of Eurasia (1:00-2:30 pm).

The event will also be attended by leading political scientists, international security experts and former international officials - in total more than 20 experts from Central Asia, China and Russia, including Kubatbek Rakhimov, Executive Director of the Public Foundation “Applicata - Centre for Strategic Decisions”, Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic (2019–2020); Rashid Alimov, SCO Secretary General (2016–2018); Bulat Sultanov, Director of the Research Institute for International and Regional Cooperation, Director of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2005–2014); Sanzhar Valiev, Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan; Khudoberdi Kholiknazar, Director of the Centre for the Study of Central Asia and China in Tajikistan; Nelson Wong, Vice President of the Shanghai Centre for Strategic and International Studies; Ivan Sidorov, Colonel General, Chief of the Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation; Ivan Safranchuk, Leading Research Fellow, Director of the Centre for Eurasian Studies, Institute for International Studies, MGIMO, Russian Foreign Ministry; 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 Club; Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, and others.

Working languages: English, Russian

Information for the media: In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our website or call +79269307763.