The 9th International Scientific and Expert Forum Primakov Readings ended in Moscow, Russia.
This year, the Primakov Readings was attended by 80 leading foreign experts in international security, world politics, and economics from 31 countries of the world including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Egypt, Finland, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Oman, South Africa, Syria, Turkey, Uganda, USA, Uzbekistan and others.
In total, more than 1300 representatives of the Russian and foreign scientific and expert community, government agencies, and political and business circles took part in the forum.
Post-Globalization Horizons was the main topic of the discussions at the event, said a media release on Wednesday.
During its five sessions, experts discussed nuclear energy, Russia-Africa relations, the challenges of post-Soviet countries, as well as the current state of the Baltic Sea and the rise of the Global South.
The second day of the forum was opened with a special session attended by Alexey Likhachev, Director General of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.
The speaker spoke about the company’s main activities and current projects, and gave an overview of the nuclear industry in other countries.
According to the speaker, despite the political factor, “the global nuclear family has not split”.
The next session was devoted to Russia-Africa relations.
This topic was chosen for the first time in the history of the forum.
Another innovation was the participation of two presidents: current President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, and President of South Africa (1999-2008) Thabo Mbeki.
The latter spoke about promising sectors of Russian-African cooperation, “There is a serious shortage of energy resources on the continent. If Russia were to start developing hydropower in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it would solve 90 percent of Africa’s problems in this area.”
Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, also shared his view on cooperation between Russia and Africa, “Russia attaches special importance to building a long-term strategic partnership with Africa, which is gaining the status of one of the world’s significant centers of power. The principled positions of Russia and Africa on most issues on the international agenda, urgent problems of our time, global challenges and threats are close or coincide.”
The session was followed by the search for new development models for Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Russia.
One of the speakers, Eduard Solovyev, Head of the Center for Post-Soviet Studies, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), spoke about the situation in the post-Soviet space, “If we talk about the weaknesses of post-Soviet Eurasia, these are conflicts and institutions. Conflicts in the context of great geopolitical confrontation become entry points for non-regional powers, while political institutions cause the need to create stable and effective states on the territory of the post-Soviet space.”
Yerkin Tukumov, Director of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in his turn called upon the expert community to respond competently to current events and set the agenda in the information field.
The Central Asian topic was followed by a discussion on the problems of the Baltic region.
In particular, Alexander Grushko, Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoke vividly and pessimistically about the expansion of the European Union, “EU enlargement has turned out not to be the elimination of borders, but the erection of new walls and the transfer of old ones to the East.
In the eyes of our neighbors, the ideal of regional security consists of borders wrapped in barbed wire, anti-tank trench, and a training ground for military exercises. Their dream is to turn the Baltic into a NATO sea, as some NATO officials are directly talking about.”
The forum ended with a session entitled The Rise of the Global South, where experts discussed the need to include developing countries in the processes of world governance.
Thus, José Ramón Cabañas, Director of the Centre for International Policy Studies (Republic of Cuba), noted that the Global South does not have a ready-made solution to all the world’s problems, but nevertheless there is a positive trend for countries who strive to jointly develop alternative development paths.
The two days of the Primakov Readings included eight working sessions, as well as traditional address by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The discussions were focusing on political risks for global energy markets, cooperation of Russia and states of Central Asia and South Caucasus, Sino-American relations, and the development of the Global South.
The participants are also touched on the balance of power in the Baltic region and prospects for the development of relations between Russia and countries of the Middle East and Africa.
The event was organized by the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences, the Primakov Center for International Cooperation, the World Trade Center, and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of the Russian Federation with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation.