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ASEAN-Russia: Sharing a strategic future
Last November, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of ASEAN member states met in Singapore to make a historic decision on elevating the ASEAN-Russia Dialogue Partnership to a strategic level. Is it just a symbolic gesture or does it have material substance?
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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during a group photo at the ASEAN-Russia Summit in Singapore. (Reuters/Edgar Su)
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ast November, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of ASEAN member states met in Singapore to make a historic decision on elevating the ASEAN-Russia Dialogue Partnership to a strategic level. Is it just a symbolic gesture or does it have material substance? To answer this question, one has to look at it in the context of specific issues of the two parties’ cooperation and prevailing trends in the global and regional situation.
First of all, this decision once again underlined the important, stabilizing role ASEAN-Russia relations play in this time of global volatility, political and economic turbulence, growing competition between major international players, rising protectionism and unilateralism, spreading terrorism as well as other transboundary threats and challenges.
The participation of President Putin in the ASEAN-Russia and East Asia Summits in Singapore was highly appreciated by ASEAN leaders and considered to be a clear signal that Russia is an indispensable player in the region.
The decision taken in Singapore is well grounded and has solid reasons. Russia strongly believes that the evolving ASEAN concept of regional architecture, which should be open, transparent and inclusive, is the only alternative to the chaotic regional structure based mostly on military alliances and guided by the rule of force. Like most ASEAN countries, we are also concerned about attempts to impose on the region outside strategies and new geographic chimaeras, based on “containment” theories and aimed at promoting self-interested concepts.
