Valdai Club

An annual conference with the participation of the General Secretaries of CIS, EAEC, SCO and ASEAN could contribute to the further alignment of the space of consultations in a sense of partnership in the vast region.

Russia’s current engagement with Asia is not wholly or even largely dependent on external pressures from the West. In fact Russia’s own geographic and demographic position make this inevitable, and Russian involvement in Asia has a long pedigree.The determinants of power no longer lie solely in Europe or the West; strong military, economic and normative challenges have once again arisen in Asia.

The EAEU countries should use foreign trade talks to enhance the competitiveness of their economies and to strengthen their sovereignty to achieve national development goals. This calls for revising the essence of the EAEU trade policy. Astana, Bishkek, Yerevan, Minsk and Moscow must decide whether they will respond to external and internal challenges together or separately.

More and more people have been predicting in recent years that the internet as a global network as we know it may disappear in the near future or undergo radical change. At least this is where the actions by both government and non-government actors are pointing, from software developers, communications operators and cyber security companies to hackers and groups of hackers. Valentin Makarov, president of Russoft non-commercial partnership and head of the SafeNet working group of the National Technology Initiative, shared his perspective on the threats and future of the internet on the sidelines of Valdai Club’s regional conference in Singapore.

Russia’s objective is to form a common, open and non-discriminatory economic partnership in the Asia Pacific, which will undoubtedly serve the interests of all regional players.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has stepped up its efforts to enter into FTA with East and Southeast Asian countries. The FTA agreement with Vietnam in 2015 was the first shot. An initiative to create a free trade area with Singapore is underway. However, things get more complicated when it comes to the major regional economies, i.e. China, Japan and South Korea.