OREANDA-NEWSRussia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), after bringing the dialogue to the level of strategic partnership, will outline additional measures to develop political and economic cooperation. This was announced on Wednesday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at the Russia-ASEAN ministerial meeting.

He recalled that this meeting is the first after the level of relations between the Russian Federation and the Association has been raised to a strategic partnership, which was officially announced at the Russia-ASEAN summit in Singapore in November 2018. “The agreements reached there laid the foundation for further building up cooperation in all areas, set new tasks for us. I am pleased to state that the parties started to implement them quickly, without swinging”, the minister said.

He particularly noted the increased level of coordination of the Russian Federation and ASEAN in the international arena. “The foreign policy philosophy of our countries is virtually identical, and the approaches to solving pressing problems of our time coincide exclusively through negotiations and dialogue,” Lavrov stressed. According to him, this is especially important "in the current difficult situation in the world".

"Practical cooperation between Russia and ASEAN is being consolidated - new promising areas are opening up, mutually beneficial joint projects are being successfully implemented. At today's meeting we will have to outline additional measures to develop cooperation in the political, economic and socio-cultural fields, to exchange views on a wide range of global and regional agenda, including building in the Asia-Pacific region an architecture of equal and indivisible tranquility adequate to the modern realities and",- he drew the attention of the head of dipvedomstva.

“We consider it fundamentally important to strengthen the systemic role of ASEAN and aseo-centric associations, such as the East Asian Summit, the ASEAN Regional Security Forum, the ASEAN Defense Ministers meeting with dialogue partners”, Lavrov added.