Executive Report

“I can see I am part of a pretty serious event here”
– Former President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005)

The Eurasian Media Forum (EAMF), a non-political organisation founded in Kazakhstan to promote East-West understanding through dialogue, held its sixth annual conference in April 2007.

Analysis, opinion, passion and emotion were the hallmarks of the April 19-21 gathering in Almaty – through which passed the once great Silk Road linking Orient and Occident.

The 6th EAMF brought together nearly 500 participants from 35 countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and Africa.

Major topics included the nuclear dilemmas posed by Iran and North Korea, military challenges in Afghanistan and Iraq, and nation-building and security in the post-Soviet world. On the lighter side there was “Glamorization” of the media.

“The significance of the Forum is obvious to everyone: it has become the most prominent venue for dialogue in Eurasia, enabling politicians, public figures and journalists to ask difficult questions of each other,” Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev said in an opening address.

Prominent participants included former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, ex-Russian Prime-Minister Eugenie Primakov, rival U.S. strategists Richard Holbrooke (Democrat) and Richard Perle (Republican) and controversial British Member of Parliament George Galloway.

“I can see I am part of a pretty serious event here,” former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said when taking part in a panel discussion on pressing nuclear issues with Holbrooke and Primakov.

Also at the Forum, chaired by Riz Khan of Al Jazeera International, were senior representatives of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), political think-tanks, major international media companies and business.

The most dramatic moment came on day one when Holbrooke said he was disappointed that every anti-U.S. statement at the conference was greeted with applause, whereas the United States supported the United Nations and was the greatest single supplier of international aid. This, in turn, won a round of applause from the audience.

As Galloway asked the audience why they were applauding, Holbrooke got up and walked off the stage. Holbrooke returned to the conference later.

At the closing session, Dariga Nazarbayeva, founder of the Forum and Chair of the Organising Committee, expressed regrets to the US delegates for the anti-American feelings expressed at the conference.

“I applaud their bravery,” she said, adding that she was pleased that the conference had given the Americans a chance to express their views and defend their policies.

Other leading delegates and speakers at the 2007 gathering included Marat Tazhin, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Affairs Minister; Chung-in Moon, South Korea’s Ambassador for International Security Affairs; Major-General (Res.) Danny Rothschild, President of the Council for Peace and Security, Israel; Geydar Dzhemal, Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia; Bakhtiar Amin, former Human Rights Minister in Iraq; Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament in Kazakhstan; Norine MacDonald, President of the Senlis Council – Security and Development Policy Group, Afghanistan; Dr. Abdullah, former Foreign Minister of Afghanistan; Azmat Hayat Khan, Director of Pakistan’s Area Study Centre for Russia, China and Central Asia, Pakistan; Stefanie Babst, NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy; Alexey Borodavkin, Russia’s Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Russia to the OSCE; Ikram Sehgal, Chairman and Managing Director of the Pathfinder Group, Pakistan; Mehmet Ogutcu, Director of International Government and Corporate Affairs, BG Group, UK; Mark Fitzpatrick, Senior Fellow for Non-Proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, UK; Miklos Haraszti, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media; John Roberts, Energy Security Specialist for Platts Energy Group; Jim Laurie, Director of Broadcasting at the University of Hong Kong; Serge Schmemann, Editorial Page Editor of the International Herald Tribune, France; Ariel Cohen, Senior Research Fellow, Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Heritage Foundation, U.S.; John Defterios, Group Vice President of FBC, UK, and many others.