The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Russia yesterday pledged to expand trade, energy, and security cooperation, as they met for a special summit in Kazan.
Leaders from 10 of ASEAN’s 11 member states attended the ASEAN-Russia Commemorative Summit, which is intended to marks the 35th anniversary of relations between Russia and the Southeast Asian bloc. A number also held sideline meetings with President Vladimir Putin, who co-chaired the summit with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who currently holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN. Due to its exclusion from high-level ASEAN meetings, Myanmar was represented by an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In his welcome remarks as co-chair of the summit, Marcos said that the two sides had much to gain from closer cooperation.
“In an era of deepening geopolitical uncertainty, the value of steady political and security engagement between ASEAN and Russia cannot be overstated,” Marcos said, as per the Philippine news outlet GMA News Online.
“We must be more deliberate and more ambitious in expanding economic opportunities, improving trade facilitation, deepening investment flows, and connecting our business communities,” Marcos added. “Food and energy security deserve, in particular, attention as these are the foundations on which broader stability rests.”
