🇷🇸🇷🇺 Serbs were the first nation in the world to fight against the wave of Western imperialism that started after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Serbs and Yugoslavia were the first targets of Westerners in their revisited Drang nach Osten. Thus, Yugoslavia was attacked by the West through internal separatist movements in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia as well as through Western domination within the United Nations.

The Civil War in Yugoslavia (1991–1995) was followed from 1992 to 1995 by UN sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Srpska (Serbian state in Bosnia-Herzegovina), Serbs from Krajina (parts of today’s Croatia) and an NATO air bombing campaign against the Republic of Srpska and Serbs of Krajina (1994–1995). During that period, the Serbs were completely alone in their rightful combat for the preservation of Serbian and Yugoslav statehood.

The Serbian struggle against Western imperialists in the 1990s gave the Russian Federation time to consolidate and reshape its views on Western expansionism. It might be that those ten years of Serbian resistance were very precious for Russia.

Almost the entire Serbian population, throughout the former Yugoslavia, has taken a pro-Russian position. In the internal political struggle of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, there is no Russophobic sentiment at all, even within the ranks of pro-Western parties, writes Aleksandar Raković.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/serbia-and-russia-in-the-context-of-current-west/

#Norms_and_Values #Serbia #Russia

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🇷🇺🌏 Paradoxes and the Multi-Vector Approach: Нow Russia Should Build Relations With Asian Countries

On September 4, the Valdai Club hosted a presentation of the Valdai Report “Russia and Asia: Paradoxes of a New Reality” ahead of the Club’s session at the Eastern Economic Forum 2023, featuring Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko. Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Club, moderated the event.

💬 Andrei Rudenko, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, stressed that although Russia has always pursued a multi-vector policy and this has traditionally been its strength, now there has been a redistribution of opportunities favouring Greater Asia – a region stretching from New Zealand to Iran. There are some symptoms of turbulence in this region. “Unfortunately, our former partners, primarily the United States of America, have chosen the line of introducing certain elements of bloc approach and confrontationalism into the region and destroying those principles thanks to which it has always flourished,” the diplomat noted, pointing to attempts to tear a number of countries away from the ASEAN-centric space. According to him, from Russia’s point of view, based on openness and transparency, ASEAN should remain the main element of the security and economic system in Asia.

💬 Alexander Korolev, Deputy Director of the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, addressed the basic hypothesis of the new report: that Russia’s Asian policy in recent decades did not fit into the framework of the so-called Asian paradox, the essence of which can be reduced to the “hot economy and cold politics” model. This model refers to a combination of complex political relations with the successful development of trade and economic relations. At the same time, Russia offered alternative models of interaction with various Asian countries. If its relations with Japan resembled the classic Asian paradox, then in relations with most of the countries of South and Southeast Asia it was more about “hot politics and cold economics”, and relations with China implied “hot politics and hot economics” for decades – development of warm economic relations and institutional political ties in parallel. The start of the special military operation in Ukraine led to certain adjustments.

💬 Rahakundini Bakrie Konni, Jenderal Achmad Yani University expert, analyst in the field of defence, military and intelligence activities of Indonesia, briefly reviewed the main scenarios for the development of the situation in Asia. In her opinion, if the BRICS idea is realized, that is, challenges and threats push Asia and Africa to unite with Russia and China, this will open up many different opportunities. However, for now, the Asia-Pacific region is under the influence of Western policy against Russia in connection with the state of affairs in Ukraine. Separately, she pointed to the minilateralist trends in the region, both in the defence and economic spheres.

💬 Ivan Zuenko, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of International Studies and Associate Professor at the Department of Oriental Studies, MGIMO University, supported the approach of the authors of the report to relations between Russia and China as a relationship of strategic interdependence, and noted that both the reciprocity of this dependence and its strategic nature are important. In the case of China, we are talking about dependence on Russia as a supplier of strategic resources and a purely geographical dependence due to a long, shared land border. From Russia, this dependence requires the development of a comprehensive strategy for economic relations and the diversification of relations with Asian countries.

https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/the-multi-vector-approach-how-russia-should-build-relations-with-asian-countries/

#Asia_and_Eurasia #Asia #Russia

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🇷🇺🌏 For Russia, the development of ties with Asian countries and presence in this region has never been a priority or a desirable task.

This is due to several reasons, each of which is serious enough to move the east to the second or third place in the list of national foreign policy priorities.

1️⃣ First, 500 years ago, Moscow solved the most important of the tasks of that time — liberation from the threat from the steppe nomads in the East; since then this area has never been threatening in terms of security.

2️⃣ Second, in the economic sphere, Russia has always been closely connected with Europe and the West as a whole. There, geography itself contributed to the strengthening of cooperation and trade, so much that even the consistent hostility towards the Russians on the part of the Europeans themselves could not break it.

3️⃣ Finally, the regions of Russia itself facing Asia have never been populated or important enough in the economic system of the country.

The past year and a half, in fact, may represent a turning point in relations between Russia and Asia. First of all, strengthening relations with regional powers and their economies has become for Moscow itself not so much a choice as a necessity.

In 2022-2023, the scale of trade and economic relations between Russia and Asian countries has increased significantly, and Vladivostok has become one of the main “gates” of Russian goods to world markets. Moreover, in the context of growing global turbulence, the Asian countries themselves are interested in actively trading with Russia and gradually moving to settlements in national currencies.

Asia is still a difficult and often not well-known partner for Moscow, but now, for the first time in Russian history, objective conditions have arisen which compel us to turn to the East, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Timofei Bordachev.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/russia-s-eastern-policy-old-restrictions/

#Asia_and_Eurasia #Asia #Russia

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8️⃣ LIVE: at 12:00 pm Moscow time we will start broadcasting of Session 8 of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, titled “Russian Civilisation Through the Centuries.”

https://vk.com/video-214192832_456239125

#VALDAI2023 #Russia #civilisation

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🌏 Turan, Iran, Russia and China are the core around which the economic development of the non-European world will be built.

Today, as the BRICS association is becoming one of the most dynamically expanding economic conglomerates of states in the world, it is obvious that the trend of economic growth is shifting towards non-European countries. 

The question remains: is it possible to do without Europe? Here it is important to immediately outline the boundaries of what kind of Europe we are talking about - Europe as part of the Euro-Atlantic bloc, claiming world hegemony. The answer to the question is not so obvious; it requires a deep look into the future.

The fact is that in the case of Eurasian integration based on BRICS, SCO, ECO and with the participation of North Korea, a relatively coherent paradigm of regional relations is obtained. Its success will, over time, push Europe toward cooperation, most likely on more equal terms than it currently has.

These circumstances necessitate, first and foremost, the need for the Eurasian world to overcome Europe’s claims to hegemony. A strong Eurasian economic bloc cannot go unnoticed and without being involved in the world economy.

The Greater Eurasian Partnership will take on new contours in the near future, write Kubatbek Rakhimov and Alexey Mikhalev.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/between-iran-and-turan-or-new-horizons-of-the-grea/

#Asia_and_Eurasia #Iran #Russia #China #Eurasia #BRICS

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🇷🇺🌏 Over the past decades, Russia’s policy in Asia has fallen loosely into the so-called “Asian Paradox.”

This term that became popular in academic and expert circles in the 1990s. In other words, it can be described as “hot economics and cold politics”, a pattern characteristic of Asia, where difficult and often toxic political relations between countries go hand in hand with close trade, economic and investment cooperation.

There are two prerequisites that led to the current situation.

1️⃣ First, the largest sub-regions (South, Southeast and Northeast Asia) were not of existential importance for Russia to the same extent as Europe or the post-Soviet space. As a result, Russia has never been involved in political and economic processes in Asia as thoroughly as in Europe or the former Soviet republics.

2️⃣ Second, a specific and at the same time strategic asset of Russia for a long time was the absence (with the exception of relations with Japan) of any serious contradictions relevant for maintaining a bilateral dialogue. Relations were devoid of severe historical trauma, as well as territorial and other disputes regarding the most sensitive issues. This favourably distinguished Russia from other major players – the USA and China.

The peculiarity of Russian participation in Asia is that it has not only refused to accept the classic formula of the Asian paradox, but also promoted alternative models of interaction.

The classic model of the “Asian paradox” in the current conditions is not applicable for Russia’s interaction with all major countries in the region. Moreover, Asia itself and the balance of power in the region have undergone changes, taking into account the active rise of China and India and a number of regional and global trends, Alexander Korolev writes.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/new-paradoxes-of-russian-policy-in-asia/

📑 Read more on Russia-Asia relations in the Valdai Report, titled “Russia and Asia: The Paradoxes of a New Reality”

#Asia_and_Eurasia #Asia #Russia #WorldOrder

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 Russian-Indian strategic cooperation has been successfully developing for many decades.

The foundation of the Russian-Indian partnership is mutual respect for the uniqueness of the civilizations of the two countries. We recognise the unique nature of the civilizational choice of our peoples and recognise the value of the special path that our countries have chosen. This attitude is a decreasing value in modern world politics, which seeks to standardise and unify all approaches to the interaction of countries, presenting them as identical billiard balls.

Moscow and New Delhi stand for strengthening national sovereignty and refusing to interfere in each other's affairs. Russia and India also mutually respect the interests of their partner in international relations, recognise their legitimacy, and share an emphasis on equality in relations with each other and with other countries.

This is especially important in an environment in which international relations are beginning to be determined by a narrow circle of countries that consider themselves to have the right to dictate their will. 

Our common interest in the formation of polycentricity and the preservation of strategic autonomy and subjectivity in an international environment that is constantly becoming denser, as well as our intentions not to yield to the pressure of external forces that call for the channelling of foreign policy strategy in a direction beneficial to them, should unite our countries, writes Andrey Sushentsov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; Dean of the School of International Relations at MGIMO University.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/what-is-the-big-idea-of-russia-india-relations/

#ModernDiplomacy #Russia #India #BRICS

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🇷🇺🌏 So far, Moscow’s policy in its immediate circle is showing signs of such adaptability to inevitably changing conditions.

However, in order for this not to become just a form of retreat, which is delicate for our own pride, we have to solve several more important problems.

1️⃣ First, Russia will be faced with the question of how to find a relatively optimal combination of adaptability to changes that occur against our will, and consistent firmness where the problem is truly of fundamental importance.

2️⃣ Second, the general crisis of international institutions will inevitably force us to answer difficult questions in the case of those organisations whose condition now looks quite good. The aforementioned SCO, the Eurasian Economic Union or the CSTO — all of these organisations differ in their nature from Western institutions, which are built on the “leader — tribe” model. However, we still have no way of gauging the viability of organisations within which there is no strict disciplinary principle in the form of a patron power.

3️⃣ Finally, we do not yet know very well how to interact with medium- and small-sized neighbours when they find themselves in a crisis. So far, Greater Eurasia is a region with relatively established states capable of conducting responsible foreign policy. However, we must not forget that many of them in the coming years may face serious internal challenges.

In the coming years, Russia’s policy in the Eurasian space will most likely be aimed at avoiding excessive obligations, but at the same time strengthening relations with those countries that are really interested in cooperating with Moscow, as well as strengthening the influence of broad international institutions, particularly the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Such a strategy will have to meet Russia’s most important goals, which are internal in nature and consist of maintaining social stability, social harmony and economic growth, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Timofei Bordachev.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/mideast-crisis/

#Asia_and_Eurasia #Eurasia #Russia #MiddleEast

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