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Russia, ASEAN in historic first summit
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-13 14:07

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Southeast Asian leaders in Kuala Lumpur in the first Russia-ASEAN summit, with Moscow looking to spur trade with the region and raise its political profile in Asia.

Putin was to hold a working lunch with ASEAN leaders followed by summit talks that Russian officials said would touch on a range of regional and international issues, including the North Korean nuclear standoff.

The summit was to be crowned with the signing of a declaration of partnership and adoption of an agreement inked last week setting terms for their cooperation over the next 10 years.

"These documents reflect the determination in principle by the two sides to further advance their dialogue and mutually-advantageous links in various fields," the Kremlin said in a briefing paper ahead of the summit.

Russian officials said other issues on the agenda for Putin's talks with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) included the Middle East, developments in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as UN reform.

"Priority attention will also be paid to expanding joint efforts to counter new challenges and threats," the Kremlin said -- meaning the fight against terrorism.

Putin was scheduled to hold one-on-one meetings with the summit host, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as well as with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

But if Russia is eager to develop trade with the booming ASEAN economies, it is also keen to take a seat at the table with a new regional grouping, the East Asia Summit, which includes ASEAN and six other states, including China.

On Wednesday, Putin was scheduled to address the summit's inaugural meeting, a role short of the full participation that Moscow sought but nonetheless an important event for Putin.

Although there is reported to be some resistance within ASEAN of including Russia in the East Asia Summit, most countries say they favor full membership for Moscow, and analysts say Russia is not concerned by Putin's "guest" status.

"The fact that Putin is going at all is enough for now," Vladimir Portyakov, deputy director of the Institute of Far East Studies in the Russian Academy of Sciences, said last week.

Russian trade with ASEAN states -- even Soviet-era partner Vietnam -- has dropped since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Moscow's priority now is to update links with old partners in the region and build ties with new ones.

In the emerging East Asia community, Russia sees not just a new forum for talking with the economic powerhouses of Asia but also a vehicle to offset US strength in the region and begin projecting more of its own power there.

The United States has for decades been a driving force for development in the region and its absence from Wednesday's summit will be conspicuous.

By contrast Russia, long a forlorn observer of East Asia's legendary economic success stories despite its huge physical presence in the region, has enthusiastically underlined the importance of the new grouping.

"With its aggregate political weight and economic potential, the Community will have serious influence on the arrangement of power in the Asia-Pacific region and on a global scale," the Kremlin said.

Since taking office in 2000, Putin has focused Kremlin rhetoric and policy on reviving Russia as a "great power," and Moscow has made clear, especially in the past year, that it intends to focus more on Asia in pursuing this goal.



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