ASEAN-Russia Relations

2. Russian Perspectives on ASEAN

Russian Perspectives on ASEAN 7 2 Russian Perspectives on ASEAN Gennady Chufrin As a Eurasian country Russia — similarly to the former Soviet Union — has strong national interests in Asia in general and in Southeast Asia in particular. They are formed not by mere geography but by a rich variety of political, economic, security, demographic, cultural and other factors. Obviously at different periods of the Soviet/Russian history some of these factors became more prominent than the others thus influencing the choice of national objectives and means of their achievement. Reflecting fundamental geopolitical changes and new security challenges in the post-Cold War world, Russia’s foreign policy in the post-Soviet period became fundamentally different from that of the Soviet times both in its goals and in methods of achieving them. The former great power’s assertive goals were replaced with the need to create a favourable external environment for Russia’s economic development. And while the Soviet Union’s main instruments of pursuing its strategic goals were ideological and military, the new democratic Russia places emphasis on diplomatic and political methods in its foreign policy. Shortly after Vladimir Putin was elected Russian President in 2000, a revised “National Security Concept” and a new “Foreign Policy Concept” were adopted by him. In both of these documents, economic issues were placed at the centre of the long-term national development strategy. The “Foreign Policy Concept” stated in particular that in order to ensure Russia’s national security and to strengthen its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Russian Government should concentrate on: 02 ASEAN-RussiaRelations Ch 2 23/1/06, 4:51 PM 7 8 Gennady Chufrin a) Creation of favourable external conditions for a progressive economic development of Russia and for a noticeable improvement in the living standards of its population; b) Formation of a good-neighbourly belt along its national borders, assistance in resolution of existing and prevention of emergence of new tensions and conflicts in areas adjacent to the Russian Federation; c) Search for common and complementary interests with foreign countries and international organizations while pursuing national priority goals; creation of a system of partnership and alliances on this basis that would facilitate international cooperation. As a result, not only did Russia’s policy become more oriented towards economic issues, but with the passage of time, it also reflected changes in the national economic priorities. If the first post-Soviet decade’s development of economic relations with Russia’s external partners was heavily motivated by the urgent need to overcome immediate consequences of the breakdown of the Soviet centrally-planned economic system, these concerns were later largely replaced by long-term development considerations. Consequently, promoting economic relations became an important factor in facilitating the overall state of Russia’s relations with its regional neighbours in East Asia. Moreover other aspects of post-Soviet Russia’s policy in East Asia, including promotion of military security, now became decidedly more oriented towards creating a peaceful and cooperative regional environment contributing to Russia’s economic development requirements. In the post-Soviet period Russia stopped regarding any East or Southeast Asian country as its adversary and declared its intention to develop normal, preferably friendly, relations with all of them. No longer influenced by a global confrontation of two military blocs and by the threat of a nuclear holocaust, the post-communist Russia embarked on a course of reducing its defence budget, the size of its armed forces — including strategic military arsenal — and its military deployments abroad. In East and Southeast Asia, these fundamental changes resulted in a complete withdrawal of Russian armed forces from Mongolia at the beginning of the 1990s and from Vietnam where the Russian naval base in Cam Ranh Bay was closed down in 2002. It should be noted here that the decision to close down this base was taken two years ahead of a formal expiry of the existing agreement between Russia and Vietnam on its lease. Commenting on this decision, the then Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, while on a state visit in Hanoi in March 2002, said that Russian military presence there 02 ASEAN-RussiaRelations Ch 2 23/1/06, 4:51 PM 8 Russian Perspectives on ASEAN 9 “became an outdated method of achieving strategic goals”. During the 1990s, Russia also significantly reduced its armed forces on its own eastern territories, that is, in Siberia and the Russian Far East. During this period the...