Lavrov Talks Up Russia’s Potential Trade & Development With ASEAN

Russia sees good prospects for further expanding and enhancing its cooperation with member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including in the food industry and energy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. He was speaking at the foreign ministers’ meeting during the Russia-ASEAN summit in Manila on Wednesday (July 22).

 Lavrov said that “we see very good prospects in ensuring food and energy security, the digital transformation, and the platform economy. Russia is strongly convinced that ASEAN is our reliable partner and holds similar views. For our part, we consistently support ASEAN’s central role in all regional affairs, doing as much as we can to help strengthen the interstate relations system built around the association and based on the principles of international law, openness, equality, and consideration for the interests of all participants.

Our efforts will also gain serious support from the shared understanding of international processes reaffirmed in Kazan; the commitment expressed by the leaders to forming a more just and more sustainable multipolar world order; to strengthening the balanced security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region; and, certainly, to enhancing comprehensive interaction across our huge Eurasian continent.”

Lavrov was referring to the previous Russia-ASEAN summit in Kazan, which was held on 17 June. That meeting outlined multiple areas of cooperation across numerous sectors involving all ASEAN nations and set a distinct blueprint for far greater integration between ASEAN not just with Russia but also with the Eurasian Economic Union. Our report on that can be read here.

Russia’s current trade status with ASEAN overall can be seen here:

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