Speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin
during the press conference following the ASEAN-Russia Summit in Sochi, Russia
Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
Russia and ASEAN are marking the 20th anniversary of their dialogue partnership this year. This anniversary is a good opportunity to look back over what we have accomplished up until now and outline the steps for taking our cooperation further. This was the objective of all the programme events of the summit that has just ended. Let me say that this summit 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.
The recommendations formulated for the Sochi summit by the Group of Eminent Persons, composed of people from Russian and ASEAN diplomatic services and academic communities, will be very useful in this regard.
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.
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.
We will continue our 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.
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.
We are committed to developing the infrastructure for Russia-ASEAN cooperation. Over this last month alone we 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.
Let me note that all these ideas have received considerable support from the Russian and ASEAN business communities. We had further evidence of this today at the meeting with participants in what was the biggest Business Forum event in our history so far. This was a constructive, concrete and useful discussion. The business community representatives assessed highly the prospects for developing closer ties between the Eurasian Economic Union and ASEAN countries and for intensifying business contacts.
Before the summit began, you know that I met in Sochi with the President of Indonesia, Mr Widodo, who is in Russia on an official visit, and I met with leaders from other ASEAN countries too. I want to say that all of these talks were frank and substantial and reflected a shared desire to develop mutually advantageous ties between Russia and ASEAN countries in all areas.
Let me conclude by thanking Prime Minister of Laos, Mr Sisoulith, as the current ASEAN Chairman, and all of the delegation heads and the ASEAN Secretary-General for their great contribution to this summit’s success.
Thank you very much.
