Eurasian arc of instability issues discussed in St Petersburg

The Ho Chi Minh Institute at St Petersburg State University hosted the 13th international academic conference Eurasian Arc of Instability and Regional Security Challenges from East Asia to North Africa: Outcomes 2022. 

Experts and analysts from many CSTO, East and South Asia states discussed the outcomes and exchanged forecasts of the development of the Eurasian Arc of Instability phenomenon. 

For more than five years, the conference has enjoyed the status of a research mechanism for the situation at the external borders of the CSTO area of responsibility and in the collective security regions of the Organization, and its results are used in the work of the CSTO PA bodies, including in the monitoring activities carried out by parliamentarians of the Assembly. 

Conference participants included representatives of the CSTO PA Secretariat and members of the CSTO PA Legal Centre for Information and Analysis (professor Vladimir Kolotov, conference project manager, and Igor Kefeli, first Vice President of the Academy of Geopolitical Issues, deputy editor-in-chief of the international analytical journal Evraziyskaya integratsiya). 

“The Eastern European segment was the hottest one last year. Before, the main acute clashes were in North Africa and the Middle East, but now the conflict has shifted to European territory. In fact, open hostilities are actively taking place in 

the post-Soviet space with the hybrid participation of NATO forces,” said professor Vladimir Kolotov of the St Petersburg State University.

The expert also added that tensions are rising even in the Arctic.

Vladimir Bondurovsky, deputy head of the Secretariat, head of the CSTO PA LCIA, reported on the current situation in the CSTO area of responsibility and the Organization’s activities in 2022, noting that Belarus named increasing the Organization’s institutional capacity in the area of information and analysis as one of the key objectives of its presidency in the new year.

 

For reference: The Eurasian Arc of Instability is an informal mechanism to ensure the security of some countries at the expense of the vulnerability of others. 

Through this mechanism, it is possible to destabilize a particular region of Eurasia and North Africa, and the system covers a vast region from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and from the Arctic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.