On March 23, 2023, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Shanghai Institute of International Studies (SIIS) held an online joint round table on “Russia-China Cooperation in the Middle East: New Dynamics and New Opportunities”. Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Academic Director, and Chen Dongxiao, SIIS President, addressed the participants with opening remarks.
On March 23, 2023, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Shanghai Institute of International Studies (SIIS) held an online joint round table on “Russia-China Cooperation in the Middle East: New Dynamics and New Opportunities”. Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Academic Director, and Chen Dongxiao, SIIS President, addressed the participants with opening remarks.
The first session of the round table dealt with topical issues and changes in the Middle East, while the second session covered possible cooperation areas between Russia and China in this region. Experts noted the high timeliness of this event not only in the context of the recent successful visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Moscow, but also in relation to China's mediation in reaching the agreement on the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia in March 2023, which significantly changed the balance of power in the Middle East. Currently, the region witnesses the decline of the US role, the increase of China's activity, as well as the lack of stable economic development and social justice, and shortage of resources. Iran, Turkey and Israel are regional leaders, yet there is still no hegemon in the Middle East. China and Russia should develop multilateral and coordinated partnership in such areas as maintaining security and peace in the Middle East, expanding alternative regional formats of cooperation in economy, finance, trade, high technology and education, developing and strengthening the sovereignty and independence of the countries of the Middle East and creating alternative platforms of negotiations in the region. It is also worth boosting interaction between China and Russia to achieve a diplomatic and political solution to the Syrian conflict and develop a post-war reconstruction plan for the country.
Ivan Bocharov, RIAC Program Coordinator, and Jin Liangxiang, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for West Asian and African Studies of SIIS, moderated the round table.
From the Russian side, the meeting was attended by: Alexander Aksenyonok, RIAC Vice President; Vasily Kuznetsov, Deputy Director for Science at RAS Institute of Oriental Studies; Grigory Lukyanov, Researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, RAS Institute of Oriental Studies; Boris Dolgov, Leading Researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, RAS Institute of Oriental Studies; Alexei Khlebnikov, RIAC Expert; Ibragim Ibragimov, Lyudmila Samarskaya, and Stanislav Lazovskii, Research Fellows of the IMEMO RAS.
The meeting was also attended by participants from Chinese side: Wang Zhen, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for West Asian and North African Studies of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences; Zhao Long, Deputy Director of the Institute for Global Governance Studies and Senior Research Fellow (Professor) at SIIS; Li Fuquan, Director at the Center of Iran Studies of Northwest University; Zou Zhiqiang, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Middle East Studies, Fudan University; Li Zixin, Research Fellow, Department for Developing Countries Studies, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS); Liu Chang, Research Fellow of the Department for Developing Countries Studies of the CIIS; Liu Xin, Research Fellow at the Center for West Asian and African Studies of the SIIS.
