On June 12, 2023 Russia is celebrating its National Day, the Day of State Sovereignty. Being
the biggest country in the world with millennium year old civilization, Russia conducts
responsible foreign policy, proud of being a permanent member of the UN Security Council (and belonging to the Group of friends of the UN Charter).
Historically Russia is an integral part of Asia-Pacific security architecture, plays a decisive role in promotion of environment of peace and prosperity in Asia and the Pacific through fostering ASEAN Centrality through the last three decades (2023 marks the 30th anniversary of Russia-ASEAN relations and 5th anniversary of their elevation to the Strategic Partnership). One of the significant dimension of this partnership is economic cooperation including through broadening the network of FTAs between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and ASEAN Member States (this formula is ever opened to Singapore).
We’re confident that the Russia-ASEAN strategic partnership will continue to prosper, despite the attempts to undermine it through the hybrid war against Russia, building multilateral coalitions, deployment of NATO forces in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific. Unfortunately, Russia-Singapore relations, that made a substantive progress in the last 55 years are now the hostage of this malicious activities. Both our countries, that have much in common, being vibrant
multiracial and multireligious societies for more than half a century has created institutional frameworks for political dialog as well as the international law instruments – solid ground for trade, economic (trade turnover with Singapore in 2022 stayed at 2,6 billion USD and it is far from its limits) and people-to-people contacts.
We are certain that our relations have not only a past, but also a future. Russia is a promising partner for the creation of a regional security architecture and has high-potential in terms of economic cooperation. On the backdrop of decline of GDP of only 2,1% in 2022 (total amount is 2,245 trillion USD) and positive forecast for 2023 of growth of 0,3% and unemployment rate of 0,8% with external debt decreasing by 11,4% and having high coverage by international reserves (124,5%) Russia has tremendous opportunities for cooperation with ASEAN Member States, especially in food and energy security (Russia is one of the major exporters of grain, as well as oil and gas) and ICT-related technologies.
The only thing we need to build the future is goodwill.
The author of the article is H.E. Nikolay Kudashev, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Singapore.
