| James Kon |
HIS Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, is expected to join leaders from other Asean member countries in attending the Russia-Asean Commemorative Summit at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, on May 19-20.
The momentous event, which will take place for the first time on Russian soil, will carry the slogan, ‘Towards Strategic Partnership for the Sake of the Common Good’ to mark 20 years of the establishment of dialogue partnerships between Russia and Asean.
In an interview with the Bulletin, Vladlen Semivolos, the Russian Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam, gave more details about the summit.
“The main goal of the Russia-Asean Summit, as underscored by Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, is to elevate the Russia-Asean relations to a qualitatively new level of strategic partnership. It was underlined that through the years, cooperation between Russia and Asean has become an important factor of stability and economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region, and the upcoming summit is designed to expand cooperation on a range of issues, including regional security and the fight against terrorism,” he said.
The summit agenda will cover a wide range of issues related to global peace and stability, as well as bilateral and regional economic cooperation.
Vladlen Semivolos, the Russian Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam
On the bilateral track, Semivolos said, “The leaders will review the past 20 years of interaction and work out future directions for Russia-Asean cooperation in various fields. Since the launch of a full-fledged Russia-Asean dialogue partnership in 1996, a wide range of mechanisms have been established to broaden and deepen mutual ties. The Asean-Russia Joint Cooperation Committee is contributing towards multifaceted cooperation between Asean and Russia by increasing the efficiency of ongoing activities and identifying promising directions and means to enhance such cooperation.
“The Asean-Russia Dialogue Partnership Financial Fund was established to finance the cooperative activities and programmes. Regular meetings are held at ministerial, senior officials and expert levels in the fields of trade and economy, energy, science and technology, fighting terrorism and transnational crime, culture and tourism. A new dialogue on renewable energy was launched recently, and separate mechanisms of cooperation were created in the spheres of agriculture and education. Russia and Asean are working together to address acute international problems within such Asean-led multilateral frameworks as the East Asia Summit, the Asean Regional Forum and the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meetings Plus.”
The ambassador also highlighted one of the issues that President Putin emphasised, which is to increase the amount of trade and mutual investments, ensuring economic growth.
He revealed that The 2012 Russia-Asean Trade and Investment Cooperation Roadmap, and its 2015 updates, provide an effective framework for boosting mutually beneficial relations in various fields, especially in energy, transport, infrastructure, science and technologies. In 2014, the Russia-Asean trade turnover reached $22.5 billion, while Russia’s foreign direct investment in the region came in at $698 million in 2012-2014.
However, he noted, “We still have much work ahead to unlock the true potential of our partnership. Such areas as hydrocarbons production, energy security, hydropower engineering and development of energy efficient technologies open up wide horizons for even deeper cooperation. We should further promote joint projects in the transportation and infrastructure sector, primarily with regard to the establishment of information and telecommunications infrastructure, sound logistic chains, and manpower training. Promising fields also include aircraft construction, air transportation, agriculture, and food security. Russia is particularly interested in developing high-tech cooperation. Recently, our country presented its Asean partners with a project of accelerated implementation of a bilateral system of electronic trade.”
The Russian Ambassador also revealed that Vladimir Putin and His Majesty will have a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Russia-Asean Commemorative Summit.
The bilateral meeting, he said, “is the paramount bilateral political event of the year 2016, which marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between our countries. We are convinced that it will give a strong impetus to the development of our ties on political, economic and humanitarian tracks.”
“A number of practical issues of cooperation will be discussed. Among them will be promotion of trade and investments, which we consider to be one of the most promising areas of cooperation. Lately, we are witnessing impressive dynamics in this field. Bilateral trade grew manifold last year, reaching 25 million in US dollars, with credit for this success mostly going to the energy sector. This year we expect to achieve even stronger results,” he added.
During the summit the leaders will discuss possibilities of shaping a broad economic partnership across Eurasia, establishing versatile contacts between the Eurasian Economic Union and Asean. Leaders at the summit will consider coordination of these major integration structures in the future, and elaborate on ways to build up practical cooperation between Asean and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Among the high-priority topics up for discussion is the establishment of the new security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, a system which would ensure equal and indivisible security for all countries in the region based on the rule of international law, principles of peaceful settlement of disputes, and refraining from threat or use of force.
Russia, together with Brunei and China, elaborated on a joint initiative on strengthening security and developing cooperation in Asia-Pacific. On the basis of this initiative within the framework of Asean-led East Asia Summit, experts from participating countries are engaged in practical discussions to elaborate a coordinated approach to advancing new security landscapes in the region.
Additionally, a Russia-Asean Meeting for ministers of culture, and the First Russia-Asean Culture Festival will be on the itinerary. Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi bin Haji Mohd Yussof, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, along with a group of Bruneian performers, is expected to attend the event.
The post Russia-Asean Summit to mark 20 years of dialogue appeared first on Borneo Bulletin Online.