CONFERENCE "CENTRAL ASIA AND AFGHANISTAN: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS"

Berlin/Potsdam, June 6-7, 2010

The conference entitled “Central Asia and Afghanistan: Problems and Solutions,” held in Berlin, Germany, on June 6-7, 2010, was organized by the Valdai International Discussion Club, the Russian News & Information Agency RIA Novosti, the Russian Council for Foreign and Defense Policy and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).

This was the first time that a Valdai Club meeting has been held in Germany.

Political analysts, diplomats and drug experts from Germany, India, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States discussed a broad range of issues and concluded that Afghanistan has become a huge multinational drug corporation, that the country is mired in corruption, with a feeble central government and the total lack of any relevant government agencies.

They also said that revenues from the trafficking and sale of drugs are used to finance terrorists, including those operating outside Afghanistan.

Conference participants noted that NATO’s operation in Afghanistan has failed to stabilize the country, decrease the threat of terrorism and drug trafficking, and prevent the appearance of several other threats. They concluded that Russia and NATO should consolidate their efforts to fight the illegal drug industry in Afghanistan.

They also emphasized that the international community, including large regional players such as India, Iran and Pakistan, should join forces to resolve the Afghan problem.

An address to the assembled experts and journalists by Viktor Ivanov, director of Russia’s Drug Control Federal Service and chairman of the State Anti-Narcotics Committee, closed the conference.

 

PROGRAM

Sunday, 6 June

18:30              Working Dinner

                       “Is the EU joining the Reset between Russia and US?”

Russian-Western relations after START, Poland tragedy, EU-Russia Summit in Rostov-on-Don

Speaker: Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger

 

Monday, 7 June

9:00                Panel 1: Ten Years of Anti-Terrorist War in Afghanistan: How Explosive is the Central-Asian Region?

Speakers: Vitaly Naumkin, Karl-Georg Wellmann, Omar Nessar, Yossef Bodansky

 

 

11:30               Panel 2: Possibilities for Cooperation in the Central-Asian Region
                        Between Major Regional and Global Actors

Speakers: Ulrich Weisser, Evgeny Nikitenko, Nikolai Bordyuzha, Anatol Lieven, Gopalaswami Parthasarathy

14:00              Panel 3:

                        Countering Drug Production & Trafficking From Afghanistan -
                        Case Study for Potential Cooperation

Speakers: Pino Arlacchi, Yury Kroupnov, Dr. August Hanning

16:00              End of conference in Potsdam

18:30              Public lecture of the Valdai Club at the Hotel Adlon, Berlin       

Viktor Ivanov, Head of Federal Service for Drug Control

“Afghanistan and Global Stability”

 

 

PARTICIPANTS

Russia:

Pavel Andreev
Head of International Projects, RIA Novosti

Vyacheslav Belokrenitsky
Chairman of the Near and Middle East Department, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor

Nikolay Bordyuzha
Secretary General, Collective Security Treaty Organization

Geidar Dzhemal
Chairman, the Islamic Committee of Russia

Viktor Ivanov
Director, Federal Service for the Control of Narcotics of the Russian Federation

Sergey Karaganov
President, Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, Dean, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, The Higher School of Economics (HSE), Professor

Victor Korgun
Head of Afghan department, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Veronika Krasheninnikova
Ph.D. (History), Advisor to Congressman Dennis Kucinich –Co-Chair of Russia Caucus, U.S. Congress

Yuri Krupnov
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Institute of demography, migration and regional development

Sergey Linevich
Counselor, Embassy of the Russian Federation to Germany

Vitaly Naumkin
Director, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Omar Nessar
Director, Center for Study of Modern Afghanistan

Evgeniy Nikitenko
Head of Department, the Security Council of the Russian Federation

Alexey Pilko
Research Fellow, Department of Modern and Contemporary History of European and American Countries, Moscow State University

Dmitri Tultschinski
Berlin Office, RIA Novosti

 

Germany/Eu/China/India/Japan

Pino Arlacchi
Member of the European Parliament, Committee on Foreign Affairs

Katrin aus dem Siepen
Policy Planning Staff, German Federal Foreign Office

Tobias Bergner
Diplomatic Advisor, Ministry of the Interior

Yossef Bodansky
Director of Research, International Strategic Studies Association

Daniel Brössler
Parliamentary Editorial Office, Süddeutsche Zeitung

Matthes Buhbe
Department for East Europe and Central Asia, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Berlin

Judy Dempsey
Senior Correspondent Europe, International Harald Tribune

Beate Eschment
Editor Central Asia Analyses, Research Center for East European Studies at the University of Bremen

John Götz
Der Spiegel, Berlin Office

August Hanning
Former President of the Federal Intelligence Service, former Secretary of State, Ministry of the Interior

Jürgen Hogrefe
Chairman, Hogrefe Consult, Berlin

Wolfgang Ischinger
Ambassador, Chairman, Munich Security Conference

Sarah Kaessmann
Parliamentary Group Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, German Bundestag

Heinrich Kreft
Senior Foreign Policy Advisor, CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group, German Bundestag

Martin Kremer
Senior Fellow, German Institute for International and Security Affairs

Anatol Lieven
King’s College, London

Rainer Lindner
Executive Director, Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations

Charles King Mallory IV
Director, Aspen Institute Berlin

Janet McBride
Editor, Political and General News EMEA, Reuters

Stefan Meister
Research Fellow, Center Russia/Eurasia, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Berlin

Cornelius Ochmann
Project Director, Middle and East Europe, Bertelsmann Stiftung

Gopalaswami Parthasarathy
Professor, Center for Policy Research, India; former Indian Ambassador to Pakistan

Alexander Rahr
Program Director, Russia/Eurasia Program, German Council on Foreign Relations

Henning Riecke
Head, Transatlantic Relations Program, German Council on Foreign Relations

Andreas Rinke
Senior Political Correspondent, Reuters

Peter Roell
President, Institute for strategic, political, security and economic consultancy, Berlin

Alfred Ross
President, Institute for Democracy Studies, New York

Hon. Yukio Satoh
Vice Chairman, The Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA)

Christoph Schwegmann
Minister’s Office, Federal Ministry of Defence

Eugeniusz Smolar
Center for International Relations, Warsaw

Peter Tils
CEO Eastern Europe, Deutsche Bank

Ulrich Weisser
Vice Admiral (ret.)

Karl-Georg Wellmann
MP, Committee on Foreign Affairs, German Bundestag