From Vladivostok to Chennai. Valdai Club to Hold Its Session at Raisina Dialogue International Conference
Shahjehan Hall, Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi
List of speakers

On January 15, at 13:00, for the second year in a row, the Valdai Discussion Club will take part in the prestigious Raisina Dialogue international conference in New Delhi and hold a session titled: “From Vladivostok to Chennai: A New Cooperation Arc in the Rising Rimland”.

Rimland is a geopolitical term introduced by the American political scholar Nicholas Spykman as opposed to the concept of Heartland by Halford John Mackinder, which refers to the central part of Eurasia. Spykman asserts that Rimland encircles Heartland from the west, south and southeast. Arguing with Mackinder, he believed that this space is of decisive strategic importance to control Eurasia.

The choice of the session’s major topic is due to how Russia interprets the idea of the Indo-Pacific. Unlike the traditional “Asia-Pacific region”, Moscow regards this concept cautiously, considering it a factor provoking competition in Greater Eurasia. Russia is interested in expanding the sphere of cooperation and trust along the perimeter of Greater Eurasia. Rimland should become a sphere of cooperation involving broad of international formats, not a territory of hostility and suspicion.

Many experts believe that the growing Russian-Indian cooperation can enhance the Indo-Pacific concept with pragmatic reasons, associated with their joint development, apart from the geostrategic ones. What role can the Chennai-Vladivostok strategic arc concept proposed by Delhi play in this process? The experts will discuss its pros and cons at the Valdai Discussion Club’s session.

In particular, they will consider the concept of the Indo-Pacific and the rise of Rimland, explain how Russia views cooperation in Greater Eurasia, and analyze the Indian approaches to expanded international cooperation.

Raisina Dialogue is an international conference held annually in New Delhi by the Observer Research Foundation independent think tank in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India. Since its launch in 2016, Raisina has become the flagship event in India on geopolitics and geoeconomics. Its participants have featured Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Morgulov.

The Valdai Discussion Club’s session will feature high-ranking guests and renowned experts on geopolitical and economic processes in Asia, including Vladimir Norov, SCO Secretary General; Manish Tewari, member of the Indian Parliament; Chenchen Chen, Director & Research Fellow of Macroeconomics, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies; Sergey Afontsev, Deputy Director for Research and Head of the Economic Theory Department at the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The session will be moderated by Timofei Bordachev, programme director of the Valdai Discussion Club; Academic supervisor of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies, Higher School of Economics.

Information for the media! If you want to cover the Valdai Discussion Club’s session or take interviews with its speakers “on the margins”, please accredit in advance on your own and inform us by mailing at o.golovanova@valdaiclub.com and press@valdaiclub.com. For any inquiries, feel free to phone at +79037262385 (the head of the Valdai Club press service Olga Golovanova) and +7 926 930 77 63.