Russia pays great attention to the development of its ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, stressing that the two sides were harmonizing approaches toward key problems of the Pacific Rim
SINGAPORE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th November, 2018) Russia pays great attention to the development of its ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, stressing that the two sides were harmonizing approaches toward key problems of the Pacific Rim.
"Russia pays great attention to the development of relations with ASEAN that are based on mutual respect and take into account the interests of each side ... We are coordinating our approaches toward the main problems of the Pacific Rim region, challenges and threats to the regional stability, while enhancing cooperation in fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime," Putin said, addressing the Russia-ASEAN summit.
The Russian president recalled that Russia and ASEAN had adopted a declaration and an action plan aimed at bringing the cooperation between the two parties to the strategic level at Sochi summit in May 2016.
"Over the past two years we have managed to achieve a lot together: the political dialogue has been strengthened, the Russian Permanent Mission to ASEAN has been working in Jakarta since last year ... Economic ties are being steadily developed. In 2017, Russia's trade with ASEAN increased by 35 percent, the mutual accumulated investments exceed $25 billion," Putin stated.
He added that the Russia-ASEAN business cooperation road map comprised at the moment 60 joint projects in industrial and high-technology fields.
ASEAN comprises 10 Southeast Asian countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The 33rd ASEAN summit is being held in Singapore on November 11-15.
