On Feburary 18, 2016, EWI Chief Operating Officer Dr. William J. Parker III spoke at the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) on ways to build trust and cooperation between the United States and Russia.
On February 18, 2016, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) held a meeting of experts with Dr. William J. Parker III, Chief Operating Officer at the EastWest Institute. Dr. Parker is a retired senior naval officer, author of numerous publications on the problems of Islamic extremism in the Middle East, and worked for US diplomatic missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The discussion covered the issues of building trust between Russia and the United States as the countries with the greatest potential to successfully confront international challenges, namely the growth of drug trafficking (especially heroin black trading), the spread of weapons of mass destruction, of chemical and biological weapons, and their falling into the hands of terrorist groups. The participants of the meeting emphasized the need to establish a high level bilateral dialogue between Russia and the United States on cooperation in cyberspace. The experts also discussed the future US strategy in Afghanistan and Central Asia after the presidential election in 2016.
Experts who took part in the meeting on the invitation of RIAC and the EastWest Institute included: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia Mikhail Konarovsky; Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Information Security Issues of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University Andrey Kulpin; Senior Lecturer at MGIMO-University Mikhail Troitsky; RIAC expert Yuri Barmin; Director of Analytical Center at MGIMO-University Andrey Kazantsev; Director of Moscow Center of EastWest Institute Vladimir Ivanov, and others.
The Russian International Affairs Council was represented by Program Director Ivan Timofeev and RIAC Website Editor Maria Gurova.
Given the results of the meeting, it was noted that this format of expert discussions promoted normalization of relations between Russia and the United States at the expert level, and it was decided to continue discussions between RIAC-EastWest Institute expert groups in the future.
To read this summary on Russian International Affairs Council's website, click here.