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25 April 2022 at 18:00 – 19:00 BST
Due to the high level of interest in this event, RSVPs can no longer be guaranteed a place at this event, all confirmed attendees should receive a confirmation email on the day of the event.
Join Sir Michael Fallon KCB, Baroness Meyer, H.E. Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, and James Rogers as they discuss ‘Global Britain’ and the Black Sea region in light of Russia’s renewed offensive against Ukraine. This event will be chaired by Lord Risby.
The United Kingdom (UK) has a historical stake in the Black Sea region and an obligation to act as a guarantor of its peace as a party to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. The Black Sea region plays a crucial role in acting as a barrier to Russia’s geopolitical revisionism, and is where future aggression may take place. It is also essential to Britain’s Indo-Pacific ‘tilt’, insofar as it sits in-between the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific theatres. The UK has been one of the leading supporters of Ukraine and has shown it undergirds European security, meaning it ought to further amplify its focus on the Black Sea.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and re-invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has transformed the Black Sea region. Moscow’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine has put Black Sea nations on high alert, as Russia now seeks to dominate the region for strategic ends. The threat posed to these sovereign nations, the openness of key maritime communication lines, and the Euro-Atlantic order more broadly, are reminders of the importance of the Black Sea region to British interests.
The event is intended to coincide with the publication of our latest Policy Paper: ‘“Global Britain” and the Black Sea region’.
By kind invitation of Lord Risby, the Council on Geostrategy is pleased to invite you to this panel to discuss the growing geostrategic importance of the Black Sea region to British geostrategic thinking, particularly its link with Britain’s interests in the Baltic and Eastern Mediterranean, but also the region’s position in-between the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific.
Speakers
Sir Michael Fallon KCB
- Secretary of State for Defence, 2014-2017
Baroness Meyer
- Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Ukraine, House of Lords
H.E. Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko
- Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom
James Rogers
- Co-founder and Director of Research, Council on Geostrategy
Chair
Lord Risby
- Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Algeria and Lebanon, House of Lords