Russia–West relations on Munich conference agenda

A round table discussion entitled “Russia and the West: the security relationship” was held on 6 February as part of the Munich Security Conference. The event was organised by the European Leadership Network, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). A key feature of the event was the dialogue between current and retired heavyweights in the field of the foreign policy of leading countries in the Euro-Atlantic region and new leaders who are young but accomplished professional experts on international affairs.

A round table discussion entitled “Russia and the West: the security relationship” was held on 6 February as part of the Munich Security Conference. The event was organised by the European Leadership Network, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC).

A key feature of the event was the dialogue between current and retired heavyweights in the field of the foreign policy of leading countries in the Euro-Atlantic region and new leaders who are young but accomplished professional experts on international affairs.

The discussion covered current issues in the field of security, most notably the discussion of the Ukraine crisis. The participants discussed possible arrangements for resolving it, and also addressed the question of fundamental changes in the “rules of the game” in the whole Euro-Atlantic region.

Wolfgang Ischinger, Sam Nunn, Desmond Browne, Javier Solana and a number of other well-known politicians, diplomats and leading experts took part in the meeting.
The Russian Foreign Ministry was represented by Alexei Meshkov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The RIAC’s participants in the round table discussion were Igor Ivanov, President; Andrei Kortunov, Director General; Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Vice-President; Fyodor Lukyanov, member, and Ivan Timofeyev, Programme Director.

Evgeny Nadorshin, chief economist of Sistema; Pavel Andreyev, deputy editor-in-chief of Russia Today, and Dmitry Polikanov, vice-president of PIR-Center, were included in the Russian component of the new leaders’ group at the suggestion of the RIAC.

The Russian council is indebted to its partners for helping to organise the round table discussion.