Photo Gallery: Opening and First Session of the Valdai Discussion Club 2nd Central Asian Conference

On May 17-18, Nizhny Novgorod hosts the 2nd Central Asian Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club. This year’s theme is “Russia – Central Asia: Cooperation and Development Amid Instability”. The conference was opened by Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; Gleb Nikitin, Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region; and Andrey Rudenko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. The first session, which took place on May 17 and was open to media, was titled “Geopolitical Challenges and Joint Development”. Muhammad Athar Javed, founder, CEO of Pakistan House; Rustam Khaydarov, Deputy Director of Tajikistan’s Bahovaddinov Institute of Philosophy, Political Science and Law; Daniyar Kurbanov, Director of the Information and Analytical Center for International Relations under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan; Mehdi Sanaei, Associate Professor, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Iran to Russia (2013–2019); Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Financial Research Institute of the Renmin University of China (RDCY), participated. The session was moderated by Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.