The Valdai Discussion Club’s Russian-Indian conference, titled “India and Russia in the Changing Global Order: Strategic Autonomy, Security, and Partnership in the 21st Century,” will be held in New Delhi on February 4. The conference is co-organized by the Club’s Indian partner, the Vivekananda International Foundation.
This is the Club’s third annual Russian-Indian conference. Since its inception, it has become a platform for in-depth intellectual exchange, allowing experts to discuss the development of bilateral relations between Russia and India, as well as the broader geopolitical situation. It has become a tradition for the Valdai Club to begin the year with a meeting with Indian colleagues from the Vivekananda Foundation.
The first Russian-Indian conference was held in January 2024 at the Foundation’s New Delhi venue and was devoted to alternatives to the existing world order. At the second conference in Moscow in January 2025 the experts discussed security in Eurasia.
Russian and Indian experts are expected to discuss the practical results of recent high-level bilateral contacts (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s December visit to New Delhi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Moscow in 2024), during which the two leaders reaffirmed their privileged strategic partnership, adopted a strategic cooperation program, and set a course for achieving $100 billion in trade turnover by 2030. They also agreed to promote an architecture of equal and indivisible regional security.
This year, a special focus will also be placed on the agenda based on scientific and technical cooperation in high technology, digital ecosystems, and innovation in the military-industrial complex.
The one-day conference programme will include an opening, two thematic sessions, and a presentation of the Valdai Club Report. The discussion agenda will cover the following topics:
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Overcoming Strategic Challenges: Approaches From India and Russia;
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A New Trajectory for the Development of Relations Between India and Russia: The Results of President Putin’s Visit in 2025.
For the upcoming conference, the Valdai Club has prepared a new report, titled “Russia – India: Prospects and Constraints for Technology Cooperation,” which will be presented in a format open to the media (February 4, 15:30–16:30 local time (GMT+5:30). The report contains the results of two years of research and a series of interviews with Russian business representatives in India and experts in bilateral economic relations.
This year’s Indian participants will include: Venkatesh Varma, Distinguished Fellow, Vivekananda International Foundation, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India to the Russian Federation (2018–2021); Arvind Gupta, Director, Vivekananda International Foundation; Javed Ashraf, Ambassador of India to France and Monaco (2020–2024); Anil Wadhwa, Distinguished Fellow, Vivekananda International Foundation, former Ambassador of India to Thailand, Poland, Italy and San Marino; Ruchira Kamboj, Permanent Representative of India to the UN, Ambassador of India to Bhutan (2019–2022); Pankaj Saran, former Deputy National Security Advisor of India, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to the Russian Federation (2016–2018); Rector, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India; Kanwal Sibal, Minister of External Affairs of India (2001–2002); Sandeep Singh, Air Marshal (retired), Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and others.
Russian participants invited to the conference include Konstantin Bogdanov, Head of the Strategic Analysis and Forecasting Sector at the Center for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Russian Academy of Sciences; Lydia Kulik, Head of India Studies at the SKOLKOVO School of Management and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Indian Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies (RAS); Ivan Danilin, Deputy Director for Research at IMEMO, Russian Academy of Sciences; Alexei Kupriyanov, Head of the Indian Ocean Region Center at IMEMO, Russian Academy of Sciences; Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; Ivan Timofeev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, and others.
The working language of the conference is English.
Information for the media: Accreditation will be open until February 2, 2026, 12:00 noon (Moscow Time, GMT+3).
In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our website. If you have any questions about the event, please call +79269307763.
Links to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VK, Telegram and Dzen.
The Valdai Discussion Club was established in 2004. It is named after Lake Valdai, which is located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the Club’s first meeting took place.
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