Moscow Security Conference: Western Province and Files Stray

Rania Dridi-Moscow

The eighteenth Moscow International Security Conference is being held in the Russian capital in the presence of more than 100 military delegations from around the world and the participation of dozens of defense ministers, but a number of Western countries boycotted the conference, led by the United States.

This year, the conference will discuss the challenges facing the Middle East, especially the developments in the situation in Syria and prospects for achieving a political settlement of the crisis in the country.

The Libyan and Sudanese issues occupied an important part of the symposium, which focused on the need to contain the situation in these two countries through internal dialogue and away from any outside interference. Discussions also focused on issues related to peacekeeping in the world and ways to strengthen military cooperation between countries in the interests of international security and stability.

Russian positions
As usual, Russian officials took advantage of Forum platforms to promote Moscow's positions on various hot international security issues. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in his opening address, addressed a letter to NATO, which deliberately boycotted the conference, calling on it to distance itself from confrontation in Europe.

Lavrov warned of the repercussions of the Alliance's move forward in strengthening its infrastructure near the borders of Western Russia, and the risk of suspension of dialogue between Russia and the alliance, which could lead to errors that will lead to serious repercussions, according to Lavrov.

The Russian minister renewed his call for the establishment of a unified counter-terrorism front under the auspices of the United Nations, and another for building an equal and indivisible security system in the Asia-Pacific region.

Saudi Arabia and Iran
Recent international developments - notably the US decision to stop exemptions from Iranian oil imports - have overshadowed the conference. Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatemi accused US President Donald Trump of racism.

"Racism, religious extremism and terrorism are direct consequences of the US sanctions and threats policy," he said, referring to the emergence of a new form of racism, which he called "racial racism."

For his part, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud accused Iran of "continuing to support extremism and terrorism, spreading sectarianism and violating international laws." He added that "Tehran's policy reflects negatively on the Iranian people and their lives."

Between Moscow and Munich
As for the nature of the conference, some compared it to the Munich conference and saw that Russia was trying to form a competitive version of the Munich conference in order to pull the carpet from under its opponents and strengthen its international standing on the international security level, but the Russian military expert Evgeny Buginski considered this comparison wrong.

The Moscow conference "is organized by the Russian Defense Ministry, a military conference primarily and then political, and the Munich conference, on the contrary, has a political rather than a military."

The expert at the Russian Council on International Affairs, Alexander Kramarenko, rejected this comparison and explained that although the two conferences focused on security issues, they differed in terms of the delegations involved.

"The conference includes both Western and Russian delegations and in a high-profile representation. The Moscow International Security Conference comes under a Western boycott and remains limited in terms of participants and level of representation," he said.

The reason for this, according to the Russian expert to "the public atmosphere on the international scene and the tension of relations between Russia and the West, where Western countries consider the Moscow Conference platform controlled by Russia and subject to its will, and therefore pressure Western countries on their allies to avoid participation in this movement is only a component of Elements of global politics ".