On September 9, 2019, Russian International Affairs Council on (RIAC) hosted a round table “On the Way to De-Escalation in the Persian Gulf: Regional Rivals and External Actors”. Opening remarks were made by Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General, Aidar Aganin, Deputy Director of the Foreign Policy Planning Department, MFA of Russia, and Jost Hiltermann, Program Director for the Middle East and North Africa, ICG.
On September 9, 2019, Russian International Affairs Council on (RIAC) hosted a round table “On the Way to De-Escalation in the Persian Gulf: Regional Rivals and External Actors”. Opening remarks were made by Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General, Aidar Aganin, Deputy Director of the Foreign Policy Planning Department, MFA of Russia, and Jost Hiltermann, Program Director for the Middle East and North Africa, ICG.
The meeting consisted of two sessions: the first was devoted to normalization of competition in the Gulf and formation of stable regional order, and the second to the future of regional security architecture in the Gulf and the role of external actors. The event also included a discussion of Russia’s Security Concept for the Gulf Area presented by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The speakers of the first session included Ali Vaez, Crisis Group's Iran Project Director, and Vasily Kuznetsov, Director of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the RAS Institute of Oriental Studies. The session was moderated by Ruslan Mamedov, RIAC Program Coordinator. During the second session reports were made by Maria Fantappie, Senior Adviser at the International Crisis Group on Iraq, and Maxim Suchkov, Senior Fellow, Department of Applied Analysis of International Problems at MGIMO MFA. The session was moderated by Anna Arutyunyan, Senior Analyst for Russia at International Crisis Group.
The event was attended by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and leading research centers: RAS Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS IMEMO, MGIMO MFA of Russia, Lomonosov Moscow State University, HSE, RIAC experts and staff, and others.
