The Russian-Indian Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club, organized in partnership with the Vivekananda International Foundation, will be held in Moscow from January 27, 2025 at 16/1 Tsvetnoy Boulevard in Moscow.
The Vivekananda International Foundation and the Valdai Discussion Club are long-standing partners. The Memorandum of Understanding signed at the 20th
Annual Meeting of the Valdai Club in 2023 brought expert cooperation between the two countries to a new level and launched the Russian-Indian conference. The first round of the conference was held at the Vivekananda Foundation in New Delhi last January.
It is noteworthy that the Russian-Indian conference will be held against the backdrop of the celebration of Republic Day in India, which has been observed since 1950. At the opening of the conference, Vinay Kumar, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India to Russia, will speak as a guest of honour. A total of 30 experts from the two countries will take part in the conference.
Russia and India are consistently expanding and strengthening their special privileged strategic partnership. During the July summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a task for the relevant departments to increase trade turnover to $100 billion, as well as to promote military-technical cooperation and the establishment of a system of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia.
The Russian initiative to establish a Eurasian security architecture and the seven principles for building a new world order, which Vladimir Putin first voiced and developed at the Annual Meeting of the Valdai Club, overlap to a large extent with the ideas that Narendra Modi put forward during the Indian presidency of the G20.
The goal of the upcoming conference is to objectively assess the key challenges for Russia and India in various regions of the world and the dynamics of bilateral relations. The main focus of the agenda of the Russian-Indian conference will be on security in the modern world. However, this topic is no longer limited to the military-political dimension; it will be considered in a broader sense, including the security of financial transactions, as well as energy and food security.
The conference programme is defined in accordance with these goals. It includes an opening, three thematic sessions and a special briefing – this last item is being introduced at a Valdai Club Conference for the first time. Among the topics of the sessions, Russian and Indian experts will discuss:
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Hotbeds of instability and challenges to international security;
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The Eurasian security system and the alignment of integration initiatives: views from Moscow and New Delhi;
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and Russian-Indian economic relations.
A special briefing will be devoted to the results of the US elections and their impact on the situation in Europe, the Middle East, South and Northeast Asia. Obviously, both India and Russia will be watching the changes in the foreign policy of the new administration.
In addition, journalists will traditionally be able to talk to the speakers after the sessions during press approaches.
Especially for the conference, the Valdai Club has prepared a new report, titled “Russia-India: Formula for Economic Cooperation”. The report names India’s main resource: its huge, progressive domestic market, for which competition will grow between all major players. “Each of them expects certain preferences, offering India something in return. Russian business is learning to work in the conditions of such large-scale competition and sees support from both the Indian and Russian governments,” notes the author of the report, Lydia Kulik, head of India studies at the Skolkovo School of Management and senior research fellow at the Centre for Indian Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
This year, Indian participants include:
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Venkatesh Varma, Honoured Research Fellow of the Vivekananda International Foundation, Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation (2018-2021);
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Arvind Gupta, Director of the Vivekananda International Foundation;
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Pravesh Kumar Gupta, Junior Research Fellow of the Vivekananda International Foundation;
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Gulshan Rai, Distinguished Fellow of the Vivekananda International Foundation, Adviser on Cyber Security Issues;
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Ravi K Sawhney, Senior Fellow, Head of the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies of the Vivekananda International Foundation, Former Deputy Chief of Army Staff of India;
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Professor Gulshan Sachdeva of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The Russian participants invited to the conference include:
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Alexey Kupriyanov, Head of the Indian Ocean Region Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ IMEMO Institute;
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Ivan Safranchuk, Director, Leading Researcher of the Centre for Eurasian Studies of the MGIMO University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia;
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Igor Makarov, Head of the World Economy Department of the Higher School of Economics University;
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Maxim Suchkov, Director of the Institute of International Studies of the MGIMO University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia;
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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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Oleg Barabanov and Ivan Timofeev, Programme Directors of the Valdai Discussion Club.
Working languages: Russian, English.
Information for the media: In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our web site. Accreditation closes on January 24 at 18:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3). 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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