UPD: The livestream is over. The video of the discussion is available via the same link. Stay tuned!

🎥 LIVE: at 10:20 Moscow time the opening and the first session of the first Russian-Pakistani expert dialogue between the Valdai  Discussion Club and Pakistan House analytical centre will take place. The first session is dedicated to Russia-Pakistan political and security relations.

https://vk.com/video-117768947_456239370

📌 Programme of the Russia-Pakistan Expert Dialogue

#Valdai_ThinkTank #Pakistan

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📷 Session II “Regional Context of Russian-Pakistani Relations” of the first Russian-Pakistani expert dialogue.

Photo gallery of the discussion is available in our VK account.

@valdai_club

📷 Session III of the first Russian-Pakistani expert dialogue was dedicated to bilateral economic and social relations between Russia and Pakistan.

Photo gallery of the discussion is available in our VK account.

@valdai_club

❌ Cancel culture has become an invariable component of the modern political agenda.

It is primarily an American phenomenon and grounded in American technology.

However, even in the United States itself, there are at least two significant interpretations of this concept.

🔺 On the one hand, cancel culture is positioned as a tool for protecting the most vulnerable social groups. The mechanism of cancel culture in this case is clear: potential victims are protected from possible aggression in the public space due to the preventive elimination of potential aggressors from this space – those who do not adhere to the ‘correct’ discourse. The correctness of the discourse is determined by certain general standards set by the left-liberal agenda.

🔻 On the other hand, many in the US  interpret cancel culture as a tool for censoring and “modernising” the political and social space. This, they claim, primarily works to the detriment of conservative values. For example, there are known cases where the digital mechanisms of cancel culture have been used to target Donald Trump's supporters.

What was only yesterday a regional phenomenon has spread now to more and more parts of the world, and is being used as an instrument of pressure in the international arena, writes Valdai Club expert Daniil Parenkov.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/cancel-and-conquer-cancel-culture-in-world-politic/

#ModernDiplomacy #CancelCulture

@valdai_club

📆 ANNOUNCEMENT: On June 9th at 1:00 pm Moscow Time, the Valdai Club will host an expert discussion on the global food crisis.

After the Western countries launched a full-scale economic war, a food crisis became inevitable: the closure of the airspace and ports of Europe for Russian aircraft and ships has entailed interruptions in the supply chains of basic agricultural products, primarily sunflower oil and grain. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said: “Sanctions against Russia will be in place for a very long time, trade channels will change for many years, if not forever,” meaning, most likely, food supply channels.

For his part, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu noted that a severe crisis is coming, due to which some countries have already found themselves in a "catastrophic phase of food insecurity." European countries are trying to blame Russia, insisting that it is responsible for the break in supply chains.

Russia is an integral part of the global trading system and the largest exporter of agricultural products. Many African countries are almost completely dependent on Russian grain exports. The Ukrainian crisis has blocked the possibility of exporting grain from the territory of Ukraine, which, together with Russia, accounts for a third of global wheat exports. Russia is making every effort to overcome the food crisis and is ready to ensure the unhindered passage of ships with Ukrainian grain to the Mediterranean Sea if Ukraine clears the mines it has placed in coastal waters. However, the US does not intend to ease sanctions against Russia, even at the expense of Ukrainian grain exports to the world market.

The existing logistical restrictions may lead to an aggravation of socio-economic contradictions in the countries of Africa and the Middle East, which will create new hotbeds of instability in these regions.

❓How will the world community cope with the food crisis?
❓What was its main cause?
❓Is it possible to reverse the crisis and prevent hunger?
❓Which countries will be hit the hardest?

Participants of the discussion will answer these and other questions.

👥 Speakers:

🇪🇬 Nourhan ElSheikh, professor of political science at Cairo University

🇸🇱 H. E. Mohamed Yongawo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Sierra Leone to Russian Federation

🇷🇺 Oleg Kobyakov, Director of the FAO Moscow Office

🇷🇺 Ivan Timofeev, Programme Director, Valdai Discussion Club

🇷🇺 Eduard Zernin, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Grain Exporters

Moderator:

🚩 Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation of the Valdai Discussion Club

Working languages: Russian, English.

ℹ️ Information for the media: In order to be accredited to the event, please fill out the form on our website or call +7 926 930 77 63.

A link to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online-platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, on Telegram and Twitter.

@valdai_club

⏰ TODAY at 1:00 pm Moscow Time, the Valdai Club will host an expert discussion on the global food crisis.

❓How will the world community cope with the food crisis?
❓What was its main cause?
❓Is it possible to reverse the crisis and prevent hunger?
❓Which countries will be hit the hardest?

Participants of the discussion will answer these and other questions.

A link to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online-platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, on Telegram and Twitter.

@valdai_club

UPD: The livestream is over. The video of the discussion is available via the same link. Stay tuned!

🎥 LIVE: at 1:00 pm Moscow Time we are starting an expert discussion on the global food crisis.

https://vk.com/video-117768947_456239373

@valdai_club

📷 Today, on June 9, the Valdai Club held an expert discussion on the global food crisis.

Photo gallery of the discussion is available in our VK account.

The video of the discussion is available via this link.

Stay tuned!

@valdai_club

🌾🌐 Wheat is the staple food for more than 35% of the world's population.

Supply chain and logistics disruptions to grain and oilseeds production in Ukraine and Russia, as well as restrictions on exports from Russia, will have serious implications for the food security of at least fifty countries that depend on Russian and Ukrainian exports by 30% or more.

Especially for today's discussion on the global food crisis, we repeat the publication of our infographic on dynamics in the world grain market. The full high-res infographic is available here.

#valdai_infographics #wheat #foodcrisis

@valdai_club

📆 ANNOUNCEMENT: On June 16 at 3:00 p.m. Moscow Time, as part of the business program of the SPIEF-2022, the Valdai Discussion Club will hold a special session titled “Self-sufficiency and cooperation: features of the modern political economy”.

The Valdai Club has emphasised many times in its reports that globalisation, in the form in which it emerged in the 1980s, has ceased to exist. Today we are witnessing two parallel, although in many respects contradictory trends. On the one hand, the destruction of the interconnectedness of the world and the transformation of globalisation, and on the other hand, the need for cooperation even where it is politically impossible to continue it.

Previously, energy cooperation between Russia and the European countries served as a stabiliser of relations. The current crisis in relations between Russia and the West has been characterised by such a scale of contradictions that the European Union is ready to stake its own well-being for political gains. This is the main characteristic of the new reality: economic interests do not determine the actions of a state on the world stage, politics begins to take over, and political needs are realised without regard to economic consequences, no matter how grave they may be.

The Valdai Club proposes discussing the extent to which it is possible to achieve a balance between self-sufficiency and cooperation in the modern world. The poorly-remembered concept of "political economy" is again relevant. It's time to remember this discipline, because world events have once again proven that the economy does not exist outside of politics, and vice versa.

The participants of the Valdai Club session will consider the following issues:

❓What does self-sufficiency mean in the modern world?
❓How does it combine with interaction in various formats?
❓How will the transformation of globalisation end?
❓On what principles will relations between the West and non-Western countries be built, taking into account the crisis of Western international institutions?

Tradionally, the Valdai session at SPIEF will be opened by Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation of the Valdai Discussion Club.

👥 Speakers:

🚩 Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation of the Valdai Discussion Club

🇷🇺 Vladimir Chizhov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Union

🇷🇺 Stanislav Georgievsky, Vice President of Russian Export Center

🇮🇷 Bijan Khajehpour, managing partner of Eurasian Nexus Partners (EUNEPA) consulting company (Iran)

🇿🇦 Rasigan Maharajh, Director of the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation at the Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa)

🇫🇷 Jacques Sapir, Director of Research, Paris School of Social Sciences (EHESS) (France)

🇨🇳 Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies (RDCY), Deputy Dean of the Silk Road School, Renmin University of China

Moderator:

🚩 Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

Working languages: Russian, English.

📍 Venue:  Expoforum, Congress Centre, Conference Hall D1, Petersburg Highway, 64/1, St. Petersburg

Access to the event is possible for SPIEF participants and journalists accredited at the Forum.

A link to the live broadcast of the session will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club:  on the website, Twitter, VKontakte and Telegram.

@valdai_club

🌏 Central Asia is one of the few regions of the modern world where we can observe stable interstate relations as well as the absence of any serious clashes over the past 30 years.

Several important objective factors speak in favour of stability in Central Asia and negate the possibility of  dangerous conflicts developing in the region.

1️⃣ First, a simple glance at the map will tell you that the states of Central Asia are in a unique geopolitical position. They are in contact with two major powers that maintain extremely friendly bilateral relations, verging on an alliance - Russia and China. Neither of these states seek to create closed military alliances in the region in order to limit each other's capabilities, or to create artificial dividing lines, as happened in post-Cold War Europe.

2️⃣ Second, even though the states of Central Asia are not yet ready to create stable permanent forms of cooperation among themselves, they are united by the presence of a constant external threat.

3️⃣ Third, all the countries of Central Asia have relatively stable political regimes and established societies that can deal with the problem of chronic poverty, a pronounced uneven distribution of income, and the lumpenisation of the population, which have hit Ukraine or Moldova. The leaders of the countries of Central Asia, of course, still have a lot to do to pursue economic development and reduce dependence on the Russian labour market and energy prices. However, for such work they have a serious base.

4️⃣ Fourth, the special relationship with Russia and the fact that Moscow has never intended to pursue a policy of "divide and rule" has played an important role in maintaining regional stability. When the countries of Central Asia gained independence, Russia never set itself the task of creating a rift in the region that would lead to permanent hostile relations between the newly independent states, in contrast to the actions of Great Britain in South Asia.

Summing up, we can say that Central Asia is really a stable ‘rear zone’ for Russia and China in the context of the conflict that is unfolding between these countries and the West, writes Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

#Asia_and_Eurasia #CentralAsia

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📉💸 Stagflation is an impossible state of the economy from the point of view of classical economic theory, as it combines a sharp rise in prices with a slowdown in GDP growth.

The term was reportedly coined by Ian Macleod, a conservative politician who was never an economist, but he had served as the Minister of Health under Churchill and Minister of Labour under Eden, as well as Secretary of State for the Colonies under Macmillan. However, the term gained real world fame after the death of MacLeod in the mid-70s, when developed economies faced an Arab embargo on oil supplies due to the supply of weapons to Israel during the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria.

Then, due to the cessation of supplies of Arab oil to the United States, Japan, Canada and Western Europe, OPEC production decreased by 25%, oil prices on the world market immediately jumped fourfold. Importing countries experienced an acute shortage of fuel and were forced to introduce various austerity measures,  ranging from rationed distribution to the introduction of speed limits for road transport.

Although the embargo was lifted after 5 months, oil prices continued to rise throughout the 70s, making another powerful breakthrough (2.5 times) at the end of the decade after the Islamic revolution in Iran. Thus, the nominal price of oil rose by an order of magnitude during the 1970s, creating a new economic and political reality.

What is happening now is very reminiscent of the events of 50 years ago. It is true that the embargo on Russian energy resources is being introduced by consumers providing military assistance to the government of Ukraine, writes Valdai Club expert Alexei Grivach.

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #stagflation

@valdai_club

🛒🚫 Food Crisis and Sanctions

On June 9, the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion on the global food crisis.

The discussion moderator Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation of the Valdai Discussion Club, asked the participants whether the food crisis has already begun in the world or whether it is still only a threat.

🔹 Oleg Kobyakov, Director of the FAO Moscow Office, noted that even before the pandemic, every twelfth person in the world was constantly hungry, and due to the pandemic, an additional 120 million people began to experience this kind of hunger. The main causes of famine throughout human history, according to Kobyakov, have been wars, natural disasters, and economic shocks disrupting supply chains. “Unfortunately, the goal of ending hunger by 2030 remains elusive,” acknowledged the FAO representative.

🔹 H. E. Mohamed Yongawo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the Russian Federation, sees two causes of hunger - natural and man-made. The latter include not only armed conflicts, but also, in particular, problems of transport and infrastructure, which have increased in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. He also named urbanisation as one of the factors contributing to rising prices.

🔹 According to Nourhan ElSheikh, professor of political science at Cairo University, the global crisis that has now gripped the planet is not limited to the problem of hunger and affects all countries, including Western ones. She considers the United States and its partners primarily responsible for this situation, which is destroying global supply chains. “They aimed sanctions at Russia, but they hit themselves and the whole world,” ElSheikh said.

🔹 Ivan Timofeev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, described the impact of anti-Russian sanctions on food security. It would seem that the sanctions affect the sector tangentially, but there is a real problem. Many individuals associated with agricultural assets have been sanctioned. In addition, sanctions affect logistics and financial transactions. And finally, the over-compliance factor plays an important role - the excessive enforcement of sanctions legislation.

🔹 Eduard Zernin, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Grain Exporters, also spoke about the invisible barriers that are breaking supply chains in the food sector. In particular, despite all the denials "from the big stands", the overseas transportation of Russian grain is difficult.

@valdai_club

🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦➕ BRICS is going from introvert to extrovert.

In 2022 the BRICS+ format is back and is at the very center of the discussions surrounding China’s chairmanship in the grouping. 

One of the novelties of China’s BRICS chairmanship in 2022 has been the launching of the extended BRICS+ meeting at the level of Ministers of Foreign Affairs that apart from the core BRICS countries also included representatives from Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal in Africa, Argentina from Latin America, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Thailand.

And while the inclusion of Saudi Arabia and Indonesia may reflect their role in the G20 and overall size of their economies in the developing world, the inclusion of countries such as Senegal (chairmanship in the African Union in 2022), United Arab Emirates (chairmanship in the Gulf Cooperation Council in 2022) and Argentina (chairmanship in CELAC in 2022) is suggestive of a regional approach to building the BRICS+ platform.

The BRICS' greater global ambition raises hopes across the wide expanses of the Global South of material changes in the global economic system, writes Yaroslav Lissovolik.

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #BRICS