04 Apr 2019
Source: ASEAN Secretariat
JAKARTA, 4 April 2019 – The 17th Meeting of the ASEAN-Russia Joint Cooperation Committee (ARJCC) took place at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta on 2 April 2019 and was co-chaired by Ade Padmo Sarwono, Permanent Representative of Indonesia to ASEAN, and Alexander Ivanov, Ambassador of Russia to ASEAN.
The ARJCC was focused on the implementation of the ASEAN-Russia Third Summit’s decisions, particularly, the Joint Statement on Strategic Partnership. It was emphasized that the Summit had given a great impetus to ASEAN-Russia cooperation, which was also reflected by a broad representation of the Russian line agencies at the Meeting.
Both sides briefed each other on the developments in ASEAN and Russia, discussed the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan of Action to Develop ASEAN-Russia Cooperation for 2016-2020 (CPA), noted the necessity to successfully accomplish the current CPA and agreed to develop a new one for 2021-2025.
The Meeting discussed specific ways to further promote strategic partnership including by developing cooperation on political and security issues, disaster management, ICT security, education, youth exchanges, science and technology and other areas. A number of new joint project proposals were adopted.
ASEAN Member States proposed to expand ASEAN-Russia ties in the fields of transport infrastructure and navigation, road safety, vaccine development, biotechnologies, farming, aquaculture and others. A special attention in this context was paid to ASEAN-Russia sports cooperation, strengthening Russian participation in the Initiative of ASEAN Integration programs, as well as to strengthening contacts between ASEAN and the Eurasian Economic Union.
The ASEAN Permanent Representatives responded with interest to the Russian initiatives to promote new promising areas of cooperation, such as pandemic preparedness, IT-related consumer rights protection, and Smart Cities.
Both sides emphasized the necessity to develop ties between ASEAN and Russian business communities. The representative of the ASEAN-Russian Business Council proposed to hold an ASEAN-Russia Business Forum in November 2019.
The Meeting highly appreciated activities of the ASEAN Center in MGIMO University aimed at deepening socio-cultural, scientific and people-to-people interactions between ASEAN Member States and Russia.
The ARJCC underscored the importance of specific steps to move forward the ASEAN-Russia strategic partnership and noted with satisfaction the progress in ASEAN-Russia relations.
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