🗺️ The 2024 expansion is the most important milestone, after which BRICS found itself at a fork in the road.

It will either preserve and strengthen the quality of cooperation amid the new composition and turn into a genuine institute of global governance and dive into the formation of a more just world order, or it will become a loose and non-decision-making discussion club, participation in which is prestigious, but does not oblige its members to make any obligations or compromises, which are necessary for genuine multilateralism, Dmitry Suslov writes.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/brics-after-expansion/

#WiderEurasia #BRICS

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🛤️ The history of the project to build a railway from China to Uzbekistan through the Kyrgyz Republic is just under 30 years old.

Its implementation is associated with both the national interests of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and with China’s strategic objectives in Central Asia.

Chinese experts have formulated the concept of the so-called three continental bridges from China to Europe:

1️⃣ the first is the Trans-Siberian Railway, including the Trans-Mongolian Corridor and several railway crossings directly from China to the Russian Federation;

2️⃣ the second is the Trans-Kazakh railway line heading to Europe through the Russian Federation, the Caspian region and the countries of Central Asia, and also to Iran, with access to the Persian Gulf;

3️⃣ the third is a potential railway corridor through Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan with further access to both South Asia through Afghanistan and Iran and to the Caspian Sea, with subsequent access to Southern Europe and Turkey. 

The Chinese-Kyrgyz-Uzbek railway could become a pilot project within the framework of the emerging network of SCO/Greater Eurasian Partnership transport corridors, which are really important in the formation of a new geopolitical and geoeconomic reality, Kubatbek Rakhimov writes.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/between-scylla-and-charybdis/

#WiderEurasia #Eurasia

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📆 ANNOUNCEMENT: On October 10 at 12:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will host a presentation of the report “The World Majority and Its Interests”.

One of the most significant phenomena in modern international life was the formation in 2022 of a large group of states, known in Russian foreign policy rhetoric as “the world majority”. These countries refused to participate in anti-Russian restrictive measures and, on the contrary, maintained, and even expanded trade and investment relations with Moscow.

The group is heterogeneous and includes states of different sizes, which are located on all continents (except Australia) and are not members of the same political associations.

Nevertheless, the report authors consider the behaviour of the world majority in relation to the current conflict in Europe not an accidental or private phenomenon, but a significant factor in the development of the historical process. The emergence of this group is not associated exclusively with Russia — it is a product of evolution of the system of international relations. However, it was the confrontation around Ukraine that became the catalyst for its formation.

❓Is a unified policy possible towards the unconsolidated group of countries of the world majority?
❓Can the “world majority” become a universal concept and enter into wide international usage?
❓What qualities are characteristic of the participants? And how can their role on the world stage change?

The authors of the report and the discussion participants will try to answer these and other questions.

🎙️ Speakers:

🇷🇺 Lidiya Kulik, PhD in History; Head of India Studies, SKOLKOVO School of Management; Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

🇷🇺 Mayya Nikolskaya, Acting Director of the Center for African Studies at the Institute of International Studies of the MGIMO University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia

🇪🇬 Nourhan ElSheikh, Professor of Political Science at Cairo University; Member of the Egyptian Council for International Affairs

Moderator:

🗣 Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club

https://valdaiclub.com/events/announcements/valdai-club-to-discuss-the-world-majority-and-its-interests/

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. 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. 

#WiderEurasia #WorldMajority #WorldOrder

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