The 15th Asian Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club will be held in Kuala Lumpur from December 9 to 10, 2024, organized in partnership with the Bait Al Amanah Foundation (Malaysia), the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (Japan), and the Institute for Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (INSAP, Malaysia).
Over the 20 years of the Valdai Club’s work, Kuala Lumpur has repeatedly become a venue for expert meetings and joint seminars with the participation of Club’s Asian partners. In 2018, the 9th Asian Conference, titled “Changing Asia in a Changing World” was held there. Since then, Malaysia has continued to strengthen its position in the region and become one of the leading players in Asia and a member of BRICS. The country has also continued to develop economic relations with Russia and pursue an independent foreign policy, avoiding participation in Western restrictive measures.
More than 100 experts from Russia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Pakistan will take part in the Asian conference. Andrei Rudenko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and Mohamad Bin Alamin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysian will speak as honorary guests at the conference.
Russia has always maintained constructive relations with Asian countries, being itself an integral part of the Asia-Pacific region. The “pivot to the East” announced in the 2010s made Asia one of the priorities of modern Russian foreign policy. The main idea of the discussions at the 15th Asian conference is the following: the world is moving towards a polycentric structure that will be based on cooperation within individual regions. Since the Asia-Pacific is one of the leading centers of global development, it is there, in particular, that we should look for answers to modern challenges and ideas for a project capable of uniting humanity beyond the inevitable geopolitical differences. Russia relied on Asian experience and traditions in formulating the concept of Greater Eurasia and the seven principles of a new world order, which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced and developed at the Annual Meetings of the Valdai Club in Sochi.
The goal of the upcoming conference is to have an open and in-depth discussion on Russian and Asian perspectives on the most significant issues of global and regional development and cooperation. Organizers see the goal as a joint effort to find solutions to current challenges.
The conference sessions are structured in line with this goal. They include an opening session, five thematic discussions, a summary of the day’s proceedings, and a closing session. The first day of the Asia conference will be fully open to media coverage and live streaming. On the second day, sessions will be conducted in the Chatham House format, and the conference closing will be open to media. Additionally, journalists will have the opportunity to interact with conference participants; media representatives of speakers will also be invited for special interviews.
The international participants include:
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Pham Lan Dung, Rector of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam;
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Phea Kin, Director General of the Institute of International Relations of Cambodia, Royal Academy of Cambodia;
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Raza Muhammad, President of the Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad;
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Pamela Yong, Chairperson of the Malaysian Institute for Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (INSAP).
The Russian participants include:
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Ekaterina Koldunova, Director of the ASEAN Center, MGIMO MFA of Russia;
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Alexei Kupriyanov, Head of the Indian Ocean Region Center, IMEMO RAS;
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Vladimir Kolotov, Director of the Ho Chi Minh Institute at St. Petersburg State University, Head of the Department of History of the Far Eastern Countries at St. Petersburg State University;
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Anastasia Likhacheva, Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the National Research University Higher School of Economics;
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Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club;
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Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Valdai Discussion Club;
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Anton Bespalov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club;
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Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, Professor, Scientific Director of the HSE Center for Contemporary Economics and Management.
Working languages: Russian, English.
Information for the media:
In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our website. Accreditation closes on December 6 at 10:00 Moscow Time. If you have any questions about the event, please call +79269307763.
Links to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VK, Telegram and Dzen.
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.
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