(Eagle News) — The ASEAN – Russia Summit plenary session recently concluded in Sochi to mark the 20th anniversary of the ASEAN — Russia Dialogue Partnership where summit participants adopted the Sochi Declaration entitled “Moving Towards a Strategic Partnership for Mutual Benefit.”
The ASEAN-Russia Summit in Sochi held on May 19 and 20 also concluded a Comprehensive Plan of Action to Promote Cooperation Between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Russian Federation in 2016-2020.
Summit chair Russian President Vladimir Putin said the success of the entire summit were of “great importance to Russia.”
A special commemorative coin was even minted in Russia for the occasion.
Putin said that Russia and the ASEAN will continue “cooperation in fighting international terrorism, trans-national crime and drug trafficking.”
“We have agreed to expand the practice of holding annual courses organised by Russia’s Federal Security Service for colleagues from ASEAN countries and will also expand our partnership ties between Russia’s Interior Ministry and the Association of National Police Forces of the ASEAN region,” he said during a press conference.
Putin had a press conference along with the Summit co-chair Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Thongloun Sisoulith who had just assumed office in the past month.
Sisoulith thanked Putin “for his hospitality and the warm welcome” extended to the Lao delegation and the ASEAN delegation at the summit in Sochi.
Putin said at the onset on the summit that the event took place “in the spirit of friendship and mutual understanding that characterises our relations with our ASEAN partners.”
“Our discussions brought us to the common conclusion that Russia and ASEAN have achieved some solid results over these last two decades in a wide range of areas. Most importantly, we have reached agreements on building a strategic partnership over the long term. This objective is set out in the Sochi Declaration, adopted at the summit, in the roadmap for developing our relations, and in the 2016-2020 Comprehensive Action Plan,” Putin said during the press conference,” he said.
The recommendations formulated for the Sochi summit were done by a group of eminent persons, composed of people from Russian and ASEAN diplomatic services and academic communities.
“We agreed at the summit to develop our cooperation in the political sphere. Our countries will continue to work closely together in the UN, APEC, and the G20,” the Russian president said.
“We will continue to strengthen our cooperation with a view to developing a reliable and open security architecture for the Asia-Pacific region. Our work together at the East Asian summit, the Regional Security Forum, the defence ministers’ meeting and other organisations working under ASEAN aegis pursues this same objective,” Putin continued.
A Reuters report said Channel One television station, which allegedly echoed the Kremlin line, “alleged that the U.S. government had tried to dissuade some ASEAN head of government, in particular those from the Philippines and Malaysia, from travelling to Sochi, but that they snubbed Washington and came anyway.”
Reuters reported that Kremlin “has seized on the visit by southeast Asian leaders for a summit as an opportunity to show Russia still has friends on the international stage, despite being cold-shouldered by the West over the conflict in Ukraine.”
But this impression was immediately corrected by the ASEAN-Russia Summit chair, Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Thongloun Sisoulith during the press conference.
“I would like to say that, as the ASEAN Chair, we were not pressured by any third parties to refrain from participating in this summit or to prevent it from happening altogether, especially because it was convened for a reason of great importance, the 20th anniversary of our dialogue partnership,” Sisoulith said.
“Cooperation with Russia is essential to us. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of our relations, all ASEAN member countries share the opinion that the Sochi summit should be held. That is all I can say on this score,” he added.
The economy was a particular focus of attention at this summit. Russia’s trade with ASEAN countries came to $13.7 billion last year and our total capital investment came to $11 billion.
“But these figures do not reflect our countries’ real potential, and so our partners supported the proposal to increase our mutual trade, investment and technology ties,” Putin said. “We are committed to developing the infrastructure for Russia-ASEAN cooperation.”
He said that over the last month, they have established several new cooperation mechanisms, including in agriculture and education.
“The first informal meeting of our defence ministers took place, and we reached agreements on stepping up cooperation on emergency response to and combating infectious diseases. We have launched dialogue at the ministerial level in the culture sector and have also organised our first joint arts festival. On the plans for this year are the first meeting of our transport ministers in Moscow, a youth summit in Cambodia, and the universities’ forum in Vladivostok.
Russia and ASEAN share a desire to play an active part in regional economic integration processes. Let me remind you that the Eurasian Economic Union signed a free trade zone agreement with Vietnam last year. We are studying the possibility of concluding similar agreements with other ASEAN countries — Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia.
At this summit, we proposed that our ASEAN partners reflect on the establishment of a comprehensive free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and ASEAN, and at the working breakfast, we exchanged views on how we could develop links between the integration processes underway in the Asia-Pacific region and in the Eurasian region,” Putin explained.
Sisoulith added that “ASEAN and Russia cooperate closely in order to maintain international and regional peace, prosperity and stability.”
“That is why this summit is a landmark of our relations,” he said.
(Eagle News Service)
