ASEAN, Russia elevate dialogue relations to strategic partnership

At the Summit, Vietnamese PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc and other ASEAN leaders extended congratulations to Putin upon his reelection as Russian President and to Russia for successfully hosting the World Cup 2018.

ASEAN welcomed encouraging progress in the ASEAN-Russia relations since the ASEAN-Russia Commemorative Summit to mark the 20^th anniversary of the bilateral dialogue partnership in Sochi in 2016.

The ASEAN leaders welcomed Russia to play a greater role in maintaining peace, stability and cooperation for development and fruitfully coping with emerging challenges in the region.

They also expected that Russia would continue supporting ASEAN centrality and actively engaging in the efforts to accelerate dialogue, cooperation, confidence building,  and common behavior norms within ASEAN-led mechanisms.

Both ASEAN and Russia agreed to enhance cooperation in a series of domains of shared interest like trade, science, technology, agriculture, energy, natural disaster response, healthcare, education, trans-national crime prevention among others.

The leaders of ASEAN and Russia agreed to elevate their dialogue relations to strategic partnership and approved the Joint Statement on ASEAN-Russia Strategic Partnership.

Speaking at the Summit, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc underlined the importance of Russia as a key partner of ASEAN, backing both sides to heighten level of cooperation to strategic partnership.

He also expressed his hope that Russia would advocate ASEAN’s fundamental positions of maintaining peace and stability in the East Sea, peacefully settling disputes on the basis of international law, exercising self-restraint and avoiding complicating the situation, fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea and conducting negotiations on a practical and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

Meanwhile, Russian President Putin welcomed the elevation of the ASEAN-Russia relations to strategic partnership.

He voiced support for enhanced connectivity and economic cooperation between ASEAN and Russia as well as between ASEAN and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).

After the Summit, the leaders witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ASEAN and Eurasia Economic Committee – the permanent body of the EAEU./.

By Kim Anh