The Warsaw Institute Review Stategy Duologues on Geopolitics

On July 9, 2019, The Warsaw Institute Review team held another meeting in part of the ‘Strategy Duologues on Geopolitics’ event series. In this session, the representation of the international quarterly – Advisor Alexander Wielgos and the Head of the portal Łukasz Biernacki – visited the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia, where they were received by His Excellency the Ambassador Mr. Samvel Mkrtchian. From the side of The Warsaw Institute Review, the expert input at the meeting were contributed by Mr. Janusz Kowalski and Mr. Mateusz Kubiak.

This is the fourth edition of the Strategy Duologues series. Following the Embassy of Indonesia in Warsaw, The Warsaw Institute Review Advisor Alexander Wielgos initiated a meeting with the Ambassador of Armenia – His Excellency Mr. Samvel Mkrtchian, who welcomed the initiative of The Warsaw Institute Review and invited the team to the Embassy.

The quarterly experts were Mr. Mateusz Kubiak – a longtime analyst of the situation in the Middle East and the author of the article ‘Armenia: Pashinyan’s first year’ from the newest The Warsaw Institute Review issue – and Mr. Janusz Kowalski – former vice-president of PGNiG, expert and politician.

In the preliminary stages of the meeting, the Ambassador provided opening remarks, who welcomed the invitation to the Strategy Duologue and stressed the importance of the conversation between NGOs, think-tanks, diplomats and international representatives of the countries. His Excellency elaborated on the local and regional geopolitical dynamics pertinent to the international situation of Armenia and today’s perspectives with aspirations in international state policy. The Ambassador’s input was substantive and an ideal lead into further discussion.

Thereafter, the expert element from The Warsaw Institute Review analyst Mateusz Kubiak presented today’s geopolitical situation in and around Armenia, addressing components relevant to the region’s instability and regional hegemonically-ambitious-orientated actors, the prospects for settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the possibility of Polish-Armenian cooperation development, as well as the future of the Eastern Partnership. The Ambassador, Alexander Wielgos, Janusz Kowalski and Łukasz Biernacki all discussed the complex matters coherently, including exchange intervals throughout the lecture of the expert – moderated and led by Alexander Wieglos – developing topics and presenting the internal perspective. Thanks to this, and the substantive and comprehensive analysis of Mateusz Kubiak and the knowledge and experience of the Ambassador, the Strategy Duologue proved to be an ideal beginning of thus far decidedly under-utilized potential in cooperation between Poland and Armenia.

Janusz Kowalski took up the next steps and the operational plan to build effective relations. The expert also, having collectively analyzed the geopolitical situation of Armenia, described the nearest concrete steps together with the Ambassador necessary to start building good cooperation between countries.

The initiative of the Warsaw Institute Review quarterly is aimed at initiating an open, strategic dialogue; developing bilateral relations between representatives of diplomatic circles, embassies, experts with Polish institutions and civil society. The meetings are elite-natured and of an expertise character, they develop geopolitical knowledge and encourage taking strategic decisions leading to the creation of new initiatives with tangible results and developing bilateral relations between Poland and other countries.