4-5 pm, September 4, 2012: MAKAIAS, Kolkata

Meeting Notes of the Fifth “Summit” of Slavicist Association Leaders of East Asia
Report by Hiroshi Fukuda (Japan)
This “summit” was held during the Fourth East Asian Conference on Slavic and Eurasian Studies
hosted by MAKAIAS on 4-5 September 2012.
Participants:
From India:
1. Hari Vasudevan, Professor, Department of History, University of Calcutta
Specialist in Russian Studies and Former Director (2007-2011), MAKAIAS
2. Dr. Sreeradha Dutta, Director, MAKAIAS
3. Suchandana Chatterjee, Fellow, MAKAIAS
4. Anita Sengupta, Fellow, MAKAIAS
5. Professor Mahavir Singh, Dean (Academics), Gautam Buddha University, Noida, UP
6. Professor R.G. Gidadhubli, Former Director, Centre for Central Eurasian Studies,
University of Mumbai
7. Professor Ajay Patnaik, Chair, Centre for Central Asian Studies, School of International
Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
8. Professor Rashmi Doraiswamy, Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia,
New Delhi.
From Japan: Kimitaka Matsuzato, Hokkaido University, JCREES representative
Takayuki Yokota Murakami, Osaka University
Hiroshi Fukuda, Hokkaido University
From China:Yang Cheng, East China Normal University, CAREECAS representative
In this meeting the following four items were discussed.

1. Osaka was proposed as the venue for the Fifth East Asian Conference inAugust 2013
The first Conference was held in Sapporo (2009), the second was in Seoul (2010), the third was inBeijing (2011), and the fourth was in Kolkata. On a rotating basis the next conference should be in
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Japan. Considering that the next ICCEES World Congress will be held in Makuhari (near Tokyo)
and the first East Asian Conference was held in Sapporo, Osaka would be a suitable place for thefifth Conference.
Professor of Osaka University, Takayuki Yokota-Murakami, reported that the Slavicists in theKansai Area of Japan are ready to take charge of the next conference. Yokota-Murakami proposed
Osaka University of Law and Economics is the most plausible conference venue, since its Rector,
Professor Wakio Fujimoto is a famous specialist of Russian history. Yokota-Murakami underscoredthat Osaka is famous for gourmet food and that the Organizing Committee will invite theparticipants to one-day tour to Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan located near Osaka, after theconference. The participants confirmed Yokota-Murakami’s report and decided to ask the KASS’swill, since KASS could not send a representative to the “summit” this time. If the KASS agrees,
Osaka will be confirmed as the venue of the 5th East Asian Conference for Slavic Eurasian Studies.
The participants of the meeting paid serious attention to the fact that September is a very
inconvenient month for Korean scholars since a new semester starts and decided that the next
conference should be held in somewhere in August 2013. Some participants proposed to hold theconference at the end of August, as was the case with the Beijing Conference of 2011, while Indian
participants suggested holding it in early August, since the next meeting of the ICCEES Council will
be held in Makuhari at the beginning of August. There are famous Slavic Eurasian specialists among
ICCEES Council members. They may send proposals to the Osaka conference and, after Makuhari,visit Osaka to give their papers.

2. Discussions about an Indian Association of Eurasian Studies
The suggestion of establishing an Indian national association won general assent, however, it is stillnecessary to discuss about the form of the association among the Indian scholars. We see two typesof national organization among ICCEES member countries: one is individual membershipassociation, while the other is a confederation of Slavicist institutes (China’s CAREECAS belongs tothis type). If India chooses the first option, it is necessary to establish a national association first
before opting for ICCEES membership. This means it would have to get itself registered as a bodywith a working address etc, etc. This process could be time-consuming. The confederation model
would be comparatively easier. The details of this were discussed as follows:
Indian scholars present for the summit meeting discussed the prospects of an Indian association for
more active commitment to the ICCEES. Two basic suggestions came from the Indian scholars
2about combining two working models for forming an Indian association of Eurasian studies—(a)national association of individuals and (b) a federation of institutional representatives who would beselected as association representatives. It is desirable that research scholars are involved in theworking group of the association. The proposal for circulating a PROFORMA/QUESTIONNAIRE
among area studies centres, research institutes and research scholars in Eurasian Studies/Central
Asian Studies/Russian Studies for joining the association and taking an active part in the running of
the association was discussed openly.
Besides this institutional format, it would be desirable for individual experts in Russian and EurasianStudies to be members of the association.
The need for circulating ICCEES material among the participating institutions was also discussed.
A 5-year membership for the Indian association was proposed.
Certain issues regarding an Indian association were clarified—(a) the association is a prerequisite formembership in the ICCEES Executive Council (b) participation in ICCEES Congresses (held oncein every five years)/regional conferences (held every year) can be based on individual choice.
Indian participants requested to have a short text explaining “merits of being a member of ICCEES”
to popularize the idea of accession among Indian Slavicists (this request was addressed to Graeme
Gill, ICCEES President) and also application form of accession and technical advice (this request
was addressed to ICCEES General Secretary, Heike Dörrenbächer).
To join the ICCEES, an application should preferably be submitted by India before the next meetingof ICCEES Council, which will be held in Makuhari at the beginning of August 2013.
It was informed that as membership fee of ICCEES, each national association has to pay $US 1 perscholar per year. With its 1000 members, JCREES pays 1000 USD per year, while with its 500members, CAREECAS pays 500 USD each year as ICCEES membership fee.

3. A large turnout from India to the next ICCEES World Congress in Makuhari(Japan) will be highly welcomed.
Only three Indian scholars attended the ICCEES World Congress in Stockholm in 2010. In thatrespect, a large turnout from India to Makuhari in 2015 would be highly welcomed. Also, panel
3proposal rather than individual proposal would be encouraged for the convenience of organizing alarge-scale congress.
To showcase India’s support of ICCEES agenda, it was proposed that greetings for MakuhariCongress 2015 should be sent by a renowned Russian expert in India. [Professor Matsuzato has
proposed the name of Professor Hari Vasudevan, Professor of History, University of Calcutta andformer Director, MAKAIAS and has requested him to send his greetings to ICCEES Council as
early as possible].
Regarding costs, round-trip airfare from India to Tokyo is approximately 500 EUR, and conference
registration fee will be around 300 EUR. In the past, scholars from ex-communist countries enjoyeddiscount in regard to registration fee. Indian participants requested the Makuhari Organizing
Committee to grant Indian scholars the same privilege, since as per GOI Finance Ministry’s norms,
only air travel costs and daily allowance (DA) are permissible, but not registration fee. Therefore,
300 Euro as registration fee might be a serious difficulty for Indian scholars who would wish toparticipate in Makuhari Congress. This matter could hopefully be addressed by the ICCEES
Executive Council.

4. The biggest difficulty for the Conference in Kolkata was visa issues.
Five scholars sent individual proposals from China for the Fourth East Asian Conference on Slavicand Eurasian Studies that was hosted by MAKAIAS on 4-5 September 2012 in Kolkata, but only
one scholar (Professor Yang Cheng) could participate, and that too having undergone a rigid processof MHA, MEA individual clearance. Both Japanese, Chinese participants and the Indian organizersof the Kolkata Conference admitted that the biggest difficulty was visa issue that was necessarily
dependent on the clearance of the Ministries concerned. It takes about 6 weeks for the Chinese toobtain a conference visa in India. In the case of Japanese, it takes about 3 weeks.
The other difficulty is framing panels. In this conference, organizers received only three panel
proposals—first one on regional conflicts in the Russian Federation and the Caucasus proposed bySRC, Hokkaido University; second one on historiography in Central Asia proposed by Cambridge
University; and the third one on Indo-Russian bilateral relations in Russian archives proposed by
Kolkata’s study team who visited the Russian archives immediately after Soviet disintegration. To
chalk out a conference programme spread over two days with evenly distributed panels running inparallel sessions was a serious difficulty. Additionally, individual proposals were unexpectedlycancelled. It would have been much easier for the organizers if the applicants could have had4

submitted panel proposals rather than individual ones.

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