On June 16, at 11:00 Moscow time (GMT+3), the Valdai Discussion Club will host an international Asian conference online, titled “Prospects for a New Bipolarity and its Impact on Asia-Pacific”.

       The coronavirus pandemic was the first event of its kind in recent history to have a significant international political effect. It contributed to the exacerbation of problems and contradictions that had accumulated earlier, and at the same time pointed to promising new opportunities for multilateral cooperation. As noted in the new Valdai Club special report, “Staying Sane in a Crumbling World”, an escalation of Sino-US contradictions could pose a significant challenge to international stability. The United States and China now have the potential to generate revolutionary changes throughout the world and create a new world order, and their concepts inevitably compete with each other.

       For several years, Russia has been pursuing a policy of active dialogue and interaction with the Asian countries. Now this interaction needs to be adapted to the on-going changes, and the opinion of the Asian powers seems to be the most important for Russia.

       The conference will be held in an open format for the media and will consist of two segments: first, general questions will be examined regarding the possibility of the emergence and development of a new bipolar world order, second, we’ll address its consequences for the nations of Asia and Russia's position.

       How do the Asia-Pacific countries assess the newly-emerging risks? How can their negative consequences be minimised? What should we learn from each other, given our experiences, including the Cold War of the 20th century, and what impact will the emerging global trends have on established areas of interaction and development in Asia?

       Speakers:

       Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; Academic Supervisor of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies

       H.E. Dino Patti Djalal, founder and director Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia

       Hongyul Han, Professor, Department of Economics at Hanyang University (Republic of Korea)

       Dr. Yoko Hirose, Professor Faculty of Policy Management Graduate School of Media and Governance

       Bilahari Kausikan, Chair, Chairman of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore and Senior Fellow at the SMU School of Social Sciences

       Alexander Lomanov, Deputy Director, Head of the Centre for Asian-Pacific Studies, IMEMO RAS

       Dr. Nguyen Hung Son, Director General of the Institute for South China Sea, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam

       Viktor Sumsky, Director, ASEAN Centre, MGIMO University

       Xin Zhang, Associate Professor, School of Advanced International and Area Studies; Deputy Director, Center for Russian Studies, East China Normal University

       Moderator:

       Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club

       Working languages: Russian, English

       For accreditation, you need to fill out the accreditation form on our website and indicate your personal mobile number with the WhatsApp application installed.

       You can ask the speakers a question by sending it before the broadcast or live to [email protected] or WhatsApp to the number: +79269307763. Be sure to include your name and position, as well as the name of the speaker to whom the question is addressed. Questions will be asked during the Q&A session.

       A link to the live broadcast of the meeting will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club, including the website, Telegram, Facebook, Vkontakte, Twitter, Instagram