Samarkand to host Valdai Club’s 10th Asian Conference 

The 10th Asian conference of the Valdai Discussion Club, titled “Central Asia and Eurasia: Multilateral Cooperation to Face the Challenges of Global Disorder,” will be held on November 10-11 in Samarkand, in a continuation of the Club’s activities dealing with Asia.

The conference, organized in partnership with the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of Uzbekistan (ISRS), will bring together more than 60 leading experts from 11 countries – Uzbekistan, Russia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, the Philippines, Sweden, Japan, and India.

For the first time, the Club has chosen Uzbekistan, one of the leading countries in Central Asia, as the venue for the Asian conference, which is commemorating its 10th anniversary. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the president of the country, has introduced a policy of strengthening regional cooperation, supported by the leaders of neighboring countries, which has radically changed the atmosphere of relations in Central Asia.

The focus of the upcoming conference is precisely this region – the logistical, cultural, civilizational and economic hub of Greater Eurasia, which has significant internal potential for development and integration into wider international communities. The Central Asian countries interact with key regional powers (Russia, China, India) and non-regional players (USA, European Union), and these facts are of undeniable interest from a geopolitical point of view.

When discussing the principles of interaction between Asian countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his speech at the plenary session of the Valdai Club’s 2019 Annual Meeting, actually described the new world order of the future. The Conference participants will analyze the views of world and regional leaders, and offer their ideas regarding the future of this region.

The two-day conference programme includes both Uzbekistan-Russia bilateral session and sessions where foreign experts will participate. Their attention will be focused on the following topics: the role of the region in world affairs, security challenges, joint interaction through the economy, and approaches to the future.

The ISRS, which is co-organizing the conference, is the leading analytical center of Uzbekistan, established in 1992. Its main task is to provide the president of Uzbekistan with information and analytical support, and one of the key areas of international activity is research cooperation, which involves the leading think tanks and analytical structures of foreign countries.

This year, representatives of Western countries will take part in “Asian Valdai” for the first time. They include: Hans-Joachim Spanger, Associate Member, Leibniz Institute Peace Research Institute Frankfurt; Gregory Simons, Associate Professor and Researcher, Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University; and Alexander Rahr, Scientific Director of the German-Russian Forum. The representatives of major Asian nations include Taisuke Abiru, Senior Research Fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation; Zhao Huasheng,a professor at Fudan University’s Institute for International Studies in Shanghai; Alan Ortiz, Executive Director at the Centre for Philippines Futuristics, and others.

The conference will be attended by Russian experts including Viktor Shakhmatov, head of the analytical support department of the Protocol and Organizational Support Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission; Gaukhar Nurgalieva, Head of the Eurasian Research Laboratory of the SKOLKOVO Moscow School of Management; Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club and others.

Uzbekistan will be represented by Viktor Makhmudov, Secretary of the Security Council under the President of Uzbekistan, Alisher Kurmanov, head of the committee on international relations, foreign economic cooperation, foreign investments and tourism issues of the Senate of Oliy Majlis, Akmal Saidov, head of the committee on democratic institutions, NGOs and self-government bodies for the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis, Eldor Aripov, First Deputy Secretary of the Security Council under the President of Uzbekistan, Daniyar Kurbanov, director of the Informational-Analytical Centre of International Relations, Sherzod Abdullaev, director of the Centre for International, Economic and Political Studies at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy.