July 24-25, 2018 The Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISKRAN) together with the D.P. A.M. Gorchakov, the Russian Peace Foundation and the Arms Control Association, with the support of the Carnegie Corporation, held a two-day Russian-American arms control conference.
When preparing the conference, the parties agreed not to discuss Russian-American relations in general, Ukraine, sanctions and “interference in elections”, but concentrate on a narrow agenda: the rules of competition in the military sphere. During the three meetings included in the agenda of the conference, the problems of preventing dangerous incidents involving the armed forces of Russia, the United States and NATO countries were discussed; keeping the INF Treaty in force, as well as extending the START III Treaty.
The conference participants discussed possible approaches to solving current problems in each of the aspects and their potential consequences for bilateral relations. During the conference the participants expressed their personal opinion. Discussion took place according to the rules of “Chatham House”, i.e. not for quoting.
The conference, in which more than 50 leading Russian and American experts took part, was chaired by the scientific leader of ISCRAN, Academician S.M. Rogov and former Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador T. Pickering.
On the Russian side, representatives of the expert community, experts in international relations, international security and arms control participated in the event. Drachevsky, V.N. Garbuzov, A.A. Dynkin, F.G. Voitolovsky, V.I. Trubnikov, A.A. Gromyko, B.F. Myasoedov, A.A. Kokoshin, A.V. Kortunov, P.S. Zolotarev, V.I. Esin, V.S. Kuznetsov, V.F. Lata et al.
The American delegation was represented by experts from 16 research centers and foundations, including former Deputy Secretary of State for Arms Control S. Redmaker and F. Rose, former presidential aides T. Graham, S. Wallander and J. Wolfsthal, former US military attache in RF K. Ryan, President of the Arms Control Association President D. Kimball, President of the Center for New American Security R. Fontain and others.
American participants also met with members of the State Duma (Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs L.E. Slutsky, Chairman of the Defense Committee VA Shamanov, Chairman of the Committee on Science and Education V.A. Nikonov, etc.) and the Federation Council (Chairman Committee on International Affairs KI Kosachev, VP Lukin, SI Kislyak, and others), as well as by officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (AV Grushko and VI Ermakov).
Based on the results of the conference, an agreement was reached to continue the dialogue of experts.