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Vladimir Putin Will Go to Laos without Russia
// East Asian Summit doesn't need a new member right now
People's Friendship
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks in Vientiane (Laos) yesterday on preparations for the first East Asian Summit (EAS) with Russia's participation, schedule for December in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. Russian President Vladimir Putin has already been invited to this event. However, it was later learned that the question of Russia's membership in the EAS has still not been decided in view of Russia's lack of active economic cooperation with the country's of the region.
Before the start of the meeting between the Russian foreign minister and EAS organizers, Russian diplomats stressed that strengthening ties with ASEAN was one of the priorities of Russian policy in Asia, and that a Russia–ASEAN partnership was becoming an increasingly influential factor in regional politics. However, at the same time, they admitted that a political dialog was not an end in itself, and Russia would make vigorous efforts to strengthen the economic components of the ties.
After the end of the meeting, Lavrov himself said he had agreed to prepare a policy statement and a comprehensive 10-year cooperation program, including joint efforts to combat terrorism and drug trafficking, and well as an economic agreement. The Interfax news agency later circulated an announcement of the Russian Foreign Ministry that the foreign ministers of the ASEAN countries had invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to take part in the fir st East Asian Summit.
However, a later report said that Russia's membership in the EAS was still in undecided. EAS organizers agreed to postpone the decision on Russia's application for membership in this newly formed regional alliance. As an anonymous diplomatic source informed Interfax on Thursday, Russia submitted the corresponding application last week. It was considered in Vientiane and a decision was made to put off working out a consolidated position on this issue until at least mid-August. If no decision is made then, the organizers will continue to discuss the question of Russia's application in September in New York during the 60th session of the UN General Assembly.
The idea of forming an association of East Asian countries came up in 2002 at an ASEAN + three (AEAN, China, Japan, and South Korea) summit. In November 2004, at a summit in this format, a decision was made to set up the EAS in 2005 in Kuala Lumpur. This week, within the framework of ASEAN events being held in Vientiane, the EAS organizers invited Australia, New Zealand, and India to join this organization. The idea of setting up the first East Asian Summit in Kuala Lumpur in December was confirmed in the final document of the AEAN + six (including the three new members) meeting in Vientiane; the formation of this association according to the 10 + 6 plan – without Russia – will be proclaimed at this summit.
In order to determine participation in VAS, ASEAN members laid down three criteria for candidate countries: they must join the Bali Treaty of 1976; they must have the status of a full-fledged partner in the dialog and trade and economic cooperation with association members. IN ASEAN's opinion, Russia still does not meet the third criterion. In the near future, the organizers of the EAS summit hope to clear up the question of the prospects of trade and economic cooperation with ASEAN with the Russian side, after which a final decision on Russia's application may be made.
Ivan Andreev
All the Article in Russian as of July 29, 2005
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