ASEAN-Russia Relations

Foreword

vii Foreword This timely book is the result of a joint conference organized in March 2005 by the IMEMO (Institute of World Economy and Politics) and ISEAS (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) in Singapore. With the rise of India and China, the entire Asian continent is feeling the great impact of socioeconomic changes and challenges created by these twin engines of progress and cooperation. The question on the minds of regional analysts is: Where is Russia in the midst of these vast changes? What is its role? ASEAN itself is caught up in these challenges. It has responded by a series of initiatives, such as its ambitious vision to build three ASEAN Communities (economic, sociocultural, and security); its forward-looking ASEAN+3 efforts; its proposed Free Trade Agreements with all Asian neighbours, ranging from India, China, Japan, South Korea, and further afield, with the United States and Australia. Individual ASEAN members have contributed greatly, such as Thailand’s Asia Cooperation Dialogue; BIMSTEC; the Irrawady-Chao PrayaMekong Scheme; whilst Singapore has organized the Asia-Middle East Dialogue and the Shangri-La Security Forum; Malaysia has its East Asia Summit; Indonesia has revived the Bandung spirit of cooperation between Africa and Asia; Vietnam is reaching out to the United States. Both India and China are reaching out to ASEAN with several major economic and security initiatives. All these initiatives demonstrate that the region is actively responding to the ferment of the post-Cold War era/post-9/11 challenges. Russia is now stirring; one good example is its current interest to join the East Asia summit meeting in Kuala Lumpur in December 2005. We in ISEAS set out to explore this intriguing question: how a Great Power like Russia could play an active role in the region, and in what ways ASEAN could engage Russia. Currently, Russia’s interaction with ASEAN is limited to the 00 ASEAN-RussiaRelationsPrelim 24/1/06, 2:17 PM 7 viii viii Foreword full dialogue between both parties, and trade between both sides is categorized by Russian arms sales and ASEAN raw materials. This book sets out to examine these challenges and opportunities, by examining the state of relations between Russia and selected individual ASEAN countries. This exploration has just started and will continue through a series of conferences, hosted alternately by IMEMO and ISEAS. Several interesting ideas are offered, such as a proposal for a Russia-ASEAN FTA; building tourism/business bridges through budget airlines; proposals to strengthen and energize the ASEANRussia dialogue. It is with the aim of promoting a constructive dialogue between ASEAN and Russia, and the world at large, that this book has been published. I take this opportunity to thank our colleagues in IMEMO and ISEAS, who collectively have helped to launch a worthwhile and challenging endeavour. In particular, I wish to express my appreciation to Mark Hong, Teo Kah Beng and ISEAS Intern Stasia Kostetskaia for their diligent editorial work. K. Kesavapany Director Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Singapore 14 September 2005 00 ASEAN-RussiaRelationsPrelim 24/1/06, 2:17 PM 8 ...