Valdai Club

Washington’s policy of containing China gives Vietnam an opportunity of historic proportions. Today, as globalization as we knew it unravels, some states receive privileges “just for being there,” and Vietnam’s leadership cannot afford to the miss the development opportunities opening up for the nation of 100 million people. Risks are high as well, and the end result depends on skill of the helmsmen navigating between the great powers’ conflicting interests, writes Anton Bespalov, valdaiclub.com Deputy Editor-in-Chief.

The Russian-backed narrative, where Nazism is an absolute evil and the Soviet Union played a key role in crushing it, is giving way to the dominant counter-narrative promoted by the countries of Eastern Europe. The idea that the Soviet Union bears equal responsibility with Germany for unleashing the Second World War is gradually becoming pan-European mainstream sentiment, which entails important consequences for Russia’s status in the international arena.

On July 8, the Valdai Club and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation held a joint online conference on security in the Asia-Pacific region with opening remarks by Yohei Sasakawa, Honorary Chairman of SPF, and Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club.

On April 15, the Valdai Discussion Club and the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) held an online discussion on regional strategic changes and prospects for bilateral relations. The meeting, which brought together leading experts on the region, was held in a closed-door format.

Bread riots, water wars, an influx of climate migrants, growing tensions in the world and the retailoring of the political landscape – all of these are potential consequences of global warming for world politics. Recognition of the importance of climate change and the need to counter it are considered to be the proprieties for politicians in all countries, but political considerations are preventing the formulation of global approaches to this issue. The first part of the Valdai Club’s project “Climate and Politics” describes how the climate agenda is affecting international relations.

The European Union has officially declared its goal to have net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In the next few years it will implement a large-scale programme under which companies that use green technology will be entitled to billions in subsidies whereas those that do not comply with toughening environmental demands will have to sustain both financial and market losses. The second part of the Valdai Club’s project “Climate and Politics” will discuss the impact of the green agenda on businesses.

Climate change, which only recently seemed to be an issue for a small group of scientists and environmentalists, has become a universal concern. We showed in the first two parts of the Climate and Politics project that climate issues are now on the agenda of both politicians and business people. The third part is devoted to the impact of climate change and the fight against it on the transformation of societies.

Today, the countries of Southeast Asia are, in a sense, between a rock and a hard place. While in the economic sphere they are all firmly connected to China, in the political and military sphere, many maintain close relations with the United States. ASEAN states hope to maintain a balance and avoid a situation in which they have to choose sides in a potential confrontation, but will they succeed? This issue dominated the July 30 online conference of the Valdai Club and the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia: “The Rise of Regional Multipolarity: The Importance of ASEAN Centrality”.

Within the last several years, there has been much talk about the crisis affecting the Western-centric models of globalisation that have developed since the end of the Cold War. Towards the middle of the 2010s, the US, which had once provided the impetus for globalisation, had come to the realisation that its main beneficiary was its ideologically alien and increasingly ambitious trading partner China. The result was a rise in protectionist sentiment in the Washington establishment, as reflected in the policies of the Donald Trump administration. But at the same time, global institutions such as the WTO and the IMF are experiencing a crisis of their own; the regional trade agreements and development banks are playing an increasing role.

The military operation in Syria marked the return of Russia to the role of an active player in the Middle East. The experience of recent years has shown that its presence irritates the West, but is perceived by most countries it the region as a positive factor. Experts from the Valdai Club explain the basic features of Russian politics in the Middle East, how Moscow manages to establish a dialogue with almost all parties to regional conflicts and what role the memory of the role of the USSR plays in Middle Eastern affairs.