On June 4 at 11:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Discussion Club will hold its traditional session as part of the business programme of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The session is titled “Shared Future, Universal Good: How to Manage Competition for Resources and Spaces.”
The Valdai session at SPIEF 2026 will conclude a broader Valdai Club programme running from May 31 to June 4 in St. Petersburg, aimed at fostering discussion on the challenges of intensifying interstate rivalry and the search for opportunities for cooperation in a multipolar world. The programme also includes the Club’s Third Youth Conference (May 31 – June 1) and the Valdai Expert Dialogue (June 2).
Participants in the Valdai session—hailing from Bangladesh, Egypt, India, and Russia—will focus on a unifying agenda, new areas of engagement, and norms for interaction in the context of emerging multipolarity.
Irreconcilable political rivalry and the desire of some nations to inflict substantial harm on one another coexist with universal economic and communications interconnectedness. When forceful methods of resolving contradictions reveal their limits—particularly in the Middle East—an interest in dialogue and in managing competition in the most sensitive areas inevitably emerges.
Experts will take digital platforms and technologies as a case in point. Their development clearly reflects both intensifying competition and universal interdependence. The challenges of the information space are shared by all, and despite contradictions and growing rivalries, every state has a stake in regulating it. The following questions are on the agenda of the Valdai Discussion Club’s session at SPIEF 2026:
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How to manage competition for resources and space?
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What challenges are becoming common today?
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How to ensure economic justice and equal political security for all states?
Session participants include: Syed Munir Khasru, Founding Director of the Institute for Policy, Advocacy, and Governance (IPAG) (Bangladesh); Osama Elgohary, Chairman of the Information and Decision Support Center under the Egyptian Cabinet and Assistant to the Prime Minister of Egypt (Egypt); Sujit Kumar, Member of Parliament (Bharatiya Janata Party, Rajya Sabha, Odisha) (India); Eugene Kaspersky, Director General of Kaspersky Lab; Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; and others.
Working languages: Russian, English
Information for the media
Venue: St. Petersburg, Peterburgskoye Shosse 64/1, ExpoForum, Congress Center, Pavilion G, Conference Hall G4.
Access to the event is open to SPIEF participants and accredited journalists. A press briefing following the session will be held at Press Point No. 3 (Pavilion G, near Conference Hall G1) on June 4, 2026, from 12:15 to 12:45.
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), VK, Telegram and Dzen.
