On October 5, 2017, along with the historical visit of the King of Saudi Arabia to Moscow, several events were held to focus on the current state of relations and prospects for development of relations between Moscow and Riyadh.
The first half of the day was marked by the closed seminar organized by Russian International Affairs Council and King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (Saudi Arabia). The event focused on security challenges in the Gulf and the prospects for political resolution of the situation in Yemen. The opening remarks were made by Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director of Programs, and Saud Al-Sarhan, Secretary General of the Center.
In the
afternoon TASS News Agency press-center hosted a press-conference on
Russia-Saudi relations, organized by the agency and RIAC. Secretary General of
King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Saud Al-Sarhan was the key
speaker on Saudi side.
On October 5, 2017, along with the historical visit of the King of Saudi Arabia to Moscow, several events were held to focus on the current state of relations and prospects for development of relations between Moscow and Riyadh.
The first half of the day was marked by the closed seminar organized by Russian International Affairs Council and King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (Saudi Arabia). The event focused on security challenges in the Gulf and the prospects for political resolution of the situation in Yemen. The opening remarks were made by Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director of Programs, and Saud Al-Sarhan, Secretary General of the Center.
Timur Makhmutov, RIAC Deputy Director of Programs, moderated the seminar.
The seminar started with the presentation of the analytical report “Yemen Crisis: Causes, Threats and Resolution Scenarios” (will be posted on RIAC website on October 11–12) made by Sergey Serebrov, Senior Researcher at the Centre of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. Saudi, Yemen, and Russian experts took a keen interest in the report. The speaker touched upon different levels of the issue including regional level. The experts discussed possible parameters for handling the situation and exact proposals that could be supported both by Saudi Arabia and Russia, representing different sides of the Yemen conflict. Special attention was given to the humanitarian situation, gender issue, etc.
Russia was represented by specialists from the Institute of Oriental Studies at Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, Valdai Club, and Moscow State Institute of International Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
In the afternoon TASS News Agency press-center hosted a press-conference on Russia-Saudi relations, organized by the agency and RIAC. Secretary General of King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Saud Al-Sarhan was the key speaker on Saudi side. Aleksey Vasilyev, Honorary President of the Institute for African Studies of the RAS, RIAC member, Grigory Kosach, Professor of the Chair of Modern East Department of History, Political Science and Law at Russian State University of Humanities, and Nikolai Surkov, associate professor in the Oriental Studies Department of Moscow State Institute of International Relations, represented Russia in the course of discussion. The researchers discussed the existing obstacles to the development of Russia-Saudi relations, expressed reserved optimism on the prospects for cooperation, and pointed out major areas for cooperation that lie in Moscow and Riyadh spheres of interest.
