The 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, titled “Fair Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for All” will be held in Sochi on October 2–5, 2023.
The meeting will be attended by more than 130 experts, politicians and diplomats from 43 countries throughout Eurasia, Africa, North and South America. Traditionally, at the Annual Valdai Meeting, the majority of guests are foreign participants.
In recent years, the reports of the Valdai Club have analysed in detail the dynamics of changes in the world order — first the crisis, and then the dismantling of the old world. The breakdown of the previous system of international relations has already occurred. The concept of multipolarity has sprung into life. This year, participants will try to produce an image of the new world: for example, what it will be like by the beginning of the next decade.
The Club assumes that after February 24, 2022, the structure of international relations changed completely. It is impossible to return it to its previous state.
Today the situation on the world stage is developing outside the usual idea of order, in the absence of a clear structure.
Amid the new conditions, the international architecture should be discussed, including in the context of the BRICS transformation. The countries of the community have opted for a model of its further development through enlargement. The association itself attracts those who do not follow the Western model of development or share its common principles and “universal” values, choosing instead to adhere to their own interests and traditions. The Valdai Discussion Club is closely following this trend and will devote the first session of the Annual Meeting to it.
Structurally, the programme is divided into several thematic blocks: each day will be devoted to one broad topic — politics, economics or humanitarian issues. Over the four days of the Valdai Club Annual Meeting, 17 sessions will be held, at which the following issues will be discussed:
• The role of nuclear weapons and the danger of nuclear war;
• Food security and Russia’s contribution;
• The world economy without a currency monopoly or punitive measures;
• Russian economy, society and culture in an era of transformation;
• Energy markets against the backdrop of military-political tensions;
• Science and education in an era of confrontation.
In the emerging world, Russia is positioning itself as a unique state-civilization that has absorbed both Western culture and Eastern traditions. This conceptual basis of modern Russian foreign policy will be reflected in the programme of the Annual Meeting. For the first time, the forum features a session titled “Russian Civilization Through the Centuries”.
Participants in the Annual Meeting are expected to meet with Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, and other leaders and representatives of the executive and legislative authorities of the Russian Federation; these have already become a tradition.
The opening session of the 20th Meeting will feature the presentation of the Valdai Club Annual Report. Its authors try to present an image of the future world and bring their findings to the discussion of the entire forum.
Despite the changed geopolitical conditions, the Valdai Club Annual Meeting promises to become one of the most representative ones in recent years. The Forum is closer than ever to its main goal: to gather an audience that, in the words of the Club’s Research Director Fyodor Lukyanov, would be “a cast of the whole world”.
The foreign participants include: Richard Sakwa, Professor of the Department of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent (United Kingdom); Mohammad Hassan Sheikholeslami, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, President of the Institute of Political and International Studies; Carlos Ron, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela for North American Affairs, President of the Simon Bolivar Institute for Peace and Solidarity among Peoples; Venkatesh Varma, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India to Russia (2018–2021); Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, Deputy UN Special Envoy for Syria from 2014 to 2019 (Egypt); Feng Shaolei, Director of the Centre for Russian Studies, Director of the Centre for Co-Development with Neighbouring Countries at East China Normal University; Nelson Wong, Vice President of the Shanghai Centre for Strategic and International Studies (China); Radhika Desai, Professor of the Faculty of Political Studies, Director of the Research Group on Geopolitical Economics of the University of Manitoba (Canada); Geoffrey Roberts, Emeritus Professor of History at University College Cork, member of the Royal Irish Academy (United Kingdom); Lassina Zerbo, expert consultant of the Ashinaga Foundation, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso (2021–2022); Ebtesam Al-Ketbi, President of the Emirates Political Centre (UAE); Ahmed Bisichong Bening, Secretary General of the Pan African Youth Union (Ghana); Gabi Siboni, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Strategy and Security in Jerusalem (Israel); Orietta Moscatelli, columnist of the Italian geopolitical review Limes, editor-in-chief of the Department of International Affairs of the Askanews news agency (Italy); Rakhim Oshakbayev, Director of the Centre for Applied Research TALAP (Kazakhstan); Ilter Turan, Honorary Professor of Political Science at Istanbul Bilgi University (Turkey); Jafar Geletu, Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of International Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia; Philani Mthembu, Executive Director of the Institute for Global Dialogue of South Africa; Taisuke Abiru, senior researcher at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (Japan); Jacques Sapir, Director of Research at the Paris Higher School of Social Sciences (EHESS) (France); Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University (USA) and others.
The Russian participants include: Anatoly Torkunov, Rector of MGIMO University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Alexander Dynkin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, President of IMEMO RAS; Fyodor Voitolovsky, Scientific Director of IMEMO RAS; Sergei Karaganov, Member of the RAS, Scientific Director of the Faculty of World Economy and International Politics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics; Vitaly Naumkin, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientific director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Tigran Sargsyan, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Development Bank; Konstantin Simonov, General Director of the National Energy Security Fund, Professor of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation; Andrey Kortunov, Academic Director of the Russian International Affairs Council; Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director the Valdai Discussion Club; Ivan Timofeev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, General Director of the Russian International Affairs Council, and others.
The Valdai Discussion Club was established in 2004. It is named after Lake Valdai, which is located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the Club’s first meeting took place.
