Valdai Club

A certain disillusionment with the Eurasian agenda should not automatically lead to an involution scenario, but it is necessary to change the centre of gravity in the very system of multifaceted Eurasian integration, which should not narrow to only economic interaction, writes Kubatbek Rakhimov, former adviser to the Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, PHD in economics, MBA.

The core element of the Russian-Tajik strategic partnership and alliance is the coordination of joint activity in the international arena, both bilaterally and within global and regional organisations. Amid these conditions, the combined efforts of Tajikistan and Russia in ensuring the security of the southern borders of the CIS and the CSTO zone of responsibility is considered particularly relevant, writes Guzel Majtdinova, Professor of the Department of Foreign Regional Studies and Foreign Policy of the Russian-Tajik Slavonic University, who participates in the second session of the Valdai Club’s Central Asian conference.

Russian Railways pays particular attention to the diversification of transit routes and the creation of new transport corridors. For example, in the Central Asia region, in addition to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan is beginning to play an increasingly significant role in the development of Euro-Asian transit. This is reflected in the active development of the railway infrastructure, as well as in the search for new logistics solutions and routes, writes Anton Kozlov, Head of Foreign Projects and the International Cooperation Department at JSC Russian Railways, speaker of the first session of the Valdai Club conference “Russia and Central Asia Facing the Challenges of the New World — A Joint Path to the Future”.

For the Central Asia states, many of which share a border with China, the most difficult issue is how to skilfully manoeuver between Beijing and Washington in order to continue economic development under powerful propagandist and economic pressure from both sides. Meanwhile, the position of Moscow remains vague, but it will most likely prefer to play its own game, hoping to win dividends by diverting the “fire” to China, writes Adil Kaukenov, Director of China Center (Kazakhstan) and a speaker of the second session of the Valdai Club Central Asian Conference.

Russia is no longer likely to strive to take full responsibility on its own — a condition for this would be the total return of Central Asia to the imperial order controlled by Moscow, and there are no conditions for this, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Timofei Bordachev. Therefore, in the future, Russia will rely on the independent capabilities of regional states and interaction with China, which is no less interested in its internal stability than Moscow.