Vitaly Naumkin, President of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, talks about the Middle East conference organized by the Valdai Discussion Club together with the Institute of Oriental Studies. Naumkin notes that the conference attracted a diverse set of people and opinions on the increasingly complicated and unpredictable situation in the Middle East.
Naumkin added that Russian internal and foreign policy officials took part in the conference, which gave a special kind of importance to the event, which already represents a diverse array of opinions. This demonstrates the Valdai Club’s ability to discuss the most nontrivial issues of global politics, which makes it an interesting, creative and important platform, according to the scholar.