Advancing practical cooperation with Asian states is among Russia’s key tasks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in an interview with Interfax given on Diplomats’ Day, Feb. 10: “Despite the unprecedented pressure of the collective West on our partners and the illegitimate anti-Russian sanctions, trade and energy cooperation are developing and mutual trade is steadily growing.”
“Joint projects in energy, prospecting and development of natural resources, and prospective transport and logistics routes,” are on the table, according to the diplomat. “The network of direct airways is expanding, and Russian airlines perform regular flights to cities in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar.”
In 2025, “we give particular attention to celebrating the 80th anniversary of the victory in World War II and preserving historical memory of our country’s crucial contribution to defeating Nazism and fascism in Europe and Japanese militarism in the Far East and Asia,” he said. Russia expects “the heads of certain Southeast Asian states to attend celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War in Moscow.”
