The second conference of the Valdai International Discussion Club on the theme “Russia and Central Asia Facing the Challenges of the New World — A Joint Path to the Future” opened on Thursday in Kazan.
Outside events have long been a regular practice for the Valdai Club. Its conferences have been held in both European and Asian capitals. Russian cities also often provide venues for Valdaians. Kazan was not chosen by accident. According to the organizers, the Volga region, the Urals and Western Siberia are historically, civilizationally and economically the most aligned with Central Asia. The conference should be a logical continuation of the club's November 2019 meeting devoted to the region in Samarkand.
The forum, which brought together more than 60 experts from 16 countries in the building of the National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan, will last two days and will be held mainly off-line. At the opening ceremony Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrey Rudenko addressed to the participants and guests.
Among the representatives of the Central Asian countries participating in the conference are Nurgul Akimova, Advisor to the Minister of Economy of Kyrgyzstan, Yerlan Karin, Assistant to the President of Kazakhstan, Chairman of the Kazakhstan Council on Foreign Relations, Akramzhon Nematov, First Deputy Director of the Institute of Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of Uzbekistan. Besides, the discussions will be attended by former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Mehdi Sanai, Senior Advisor to the Iranian Foreign Minister, Director of the Iranian and Eurasian Studies Institute and former Ambassador to Moscow.
Bridging the gaps
According to the conference organizers, expert-level discussions on Central Asia and its internal processes have long been neglected. Valdai seeks to fill this gap and, by providing a platform for dialogue, set the tone for the conversation between intellectuals from Russia and countries in the region.
The Club points out that relations with the closest neighbors have always been one of the foreign policy priorities of Russia and urges them not to get hung up on the idea that Russia and the Central Asian "five" (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) are bound only by the Soviet past. They emphasize that today the foundation of relations is based on organizations such as the EEU, CSTO, SCO, CIS, and on bilateral tracks that were created jointly over the past 30 years.
The Club announced the planned release of the report on the policy of Russia in relation to the post-Soviet space during the last 30 years at the end of 2021. The forthcoming conference is intended to be a source of ideas and judgments for this work.
Single security zone
Security and counter-terrorism issues are also shared areas of interest between Russia and Central Asian countries, given their proximity to a region prone to political radicalism. Moscow has regularly expressed concern about the unresolved problem of foreign terrorist fighters.
This applies in particular to Afghanistan, where an unstable situation has persisted for decades, posing threats to neighboring countries as well. Moreover, the US decision to withdraw its troops from the country, on the one hand, could help resolve the situation in the Islamic republic, but on the other hand, it could create a security vacuum. Central Asian countries will have to reckon with this. Delegates will undoubtedly focus on this issue.
Cooperation in numbers
Russia today retains its position as the main economic partner of Central Asian countries despite the shift in the balance of global economic power in favor of China, the difficult conditions of sanctions and trade wars, increased protectionism, and an overall slowdown in global trade. It remains the largest investor in the economies of the region, where more than 10,000 Russian and joint ventures operate, and the Russian labor market is of particular interest to citizens of the Central Asian republics.
A significant factor is the pandemic caused by the spread of the coronavirus infection. The Russian Federation and its partners have yet to work out steps to overcome its consequences, but even against this background, they have managed to find opportunities for cooperation. In particular, since last December, Russia established production of the vaccine against coronavirus Sputnik V in Kazakhstan, and is currently working on the possibility of opening such local production facilities in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Participants are expected to discuss how Russia and Central Asian countries have passed the pandemic stress test, how to develop together in the post-pandemic period and how not to miss the windows of global economic opportunity opening up for them.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS