Valdai Club

2018

Eurasia and Asia

Timofei Bordachev

Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; Academic Supervisor of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE)

Starting from 2013, the Valdai Discussion Club programme on Eurasia has been the flagship project for conceptualization and discussion the issues concerned with the Russia’s turn to the East. Since 2015, the Valdai Club has been considered to be the leading think tank on international cooperation in the Eurasian space. Each year the Club holds a series of events, such as the Asian Regional Conference, the Kazakh-Russian Expert Forum, the Russian-Chinese Conference, which bring together the acknowledged experts in their respective fields. Moreover, it takes part in the drawing up of the programme of the Eastern Economic Forum. All the events go hand-in-hand with in-depth analysis in the form of regular reports and papers. In 2018, the programme focuses on the development of the Comprehensive Eurasian Partnership and the Eurasian integration process. Another research field is the strengthening of Russia’s positions in the region through making practical recommendations to intensify Russian economic and political involvement in the regional cooperation.

Opinions

Central Asia: Competition or Cooperation?

The regional elites, under the influence of stereotypes, as well as internal and external propaganda, had an impression that things were not going too well for Russia. Only in recent months, the assessments of Russia’s prospects began to change for the better, writes Grigory Mikhailov.

Grigory Mikhailov

Cuba: An Old Friend in the New World

The anti-Americanism of Cuban foreign policy is a product of its own assessment of its geopolitical position and the associated features of participation in world affairs. Trying to use Cuba for tactical purposes is not only immoral, but also pointless, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Timofei Bordachev.

Timofei Bordachev

India's Foreign Policy Dilemmas: Protecting National Interests

The events of recent years, and especially this year have taken India out of its comfort zone, writes Valdai Club expert Alexey Kupriyanov. India felt quite comfortable in the previous reality; the new one puts it before a large number of challenges, which the Indian leadership has so far successfully overcome, once again demonstrating an exceptional ability not to quarrel with anyone more than necessary and to extract maximum profit from the conflicts between other great powers.

Alexei Kupriyanov

SCO Facing a New Challenge

Partnership, cooperation for co-prosperity, has been the cornerstone of interaction within the Organisation. In the current conditions of the SCO, it is important not only to preserve this principle, but also to give it additional strength and energy, to move from extensive to intensive development. The current moment requires just such an approach, writes Rashid Alimov, SCO Secretary-General in 2016–2018.

Reports

THE EASTERN PERSPECTIVE

Report: Toward the Great Ocean – 6: People, History, Ideology, Education. Rediscovering the Identity

We are not heading East emptyhanded. We bring not only resources and transportation capacities, but also act as the major provider and guarantor of international security. More importantly, we have an opportunity to establish close cooperation with Asia without breaking off ties with Europe and to become the centre of the Greater Eurasian Partnership, which has been proposed by Moscow and backed by Beijing as being by 90 per cent in agreement with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Sergei Karaganov, Timofei Bordachev

Report. The Rise of Rimland: The New Political Geography and Strategic Culture

Modern international relations have entered a period of global change unprecedented in the postwar history. The processes unleashed by the changed role of China and India are making an important contribution to the burgeoning “Eurasian phenomenon,” or the surge in international trade and expectations for the traditionally peripheral landlocked regions of Central Eurasia.

Timofei Bordachev, Vasily Kashin, Alexei Kupriyanov, Fyodor Lukyanov, Dmitry Suslov

Valdai Papers

Indian Approaches to Multilateral Cooperation and Institutions in Eurasia

The changing nature of the world order and the uncertainty this brings into international affairs is pushing countries to hedge their bets by investing in multilateral and bilateral economic projects as well as creating new groupings – regional and global. India sees many benefits in joining such organizations and has joined quite a few in recent times, albeit for different purposes.

Nandan Unnikrishnan, Uma Purushothaman

China’s Geoeconomics and the ‘New Cold War’

Chinese geoeconomics is making a great leap forward to adjust to rapid technological developments and a changing international distribution of power. The world is entering a new industrial revolution that further decouples the relationship between capital and labour, which incentivises Beijing to abandon its reliance on low-wage competitiveness and instead take the lead in developing high-tech strategic industries with its digital Silk Road.

Russia’s Far East Initiatives in Troubled Geopolitical Times

The China–Russia rapprochement forms the centrepiece of Russia’s much hyped policy of a ‘turn to the East’, a policy aimed at transforming the Russian Far East from a territorial backwater into a new gateway to China, North-East Asia and beyond.

Helge Blakkisrud, Elana Wilson Rowe, Roman Vakulchuk