Lavrov Opens Russia's Permanent Mission to ASEAN

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that the opening of Russia's permanent mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) confirms the priority of Russia's interaction with ASEAN.

JAKARTA (Sputnik) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov opened Russia's permanent mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Lavrov arrived in Jakarta to hold talks with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi. Lavrov also visited the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta and held talks with ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh.

"The opening of our Permanent Mission once again confirms the priority of our interaction with ASEAN within the framework of our foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) as well as our commitment to further deepen the Dialogue Partnership with this Association, and to give it a strategic character," Lavrov was quoted as saying in the statement.

According to the minister, a high-level dialogue has been established with ASEAN leadership and its member states. Lavrov also pointed out that regular sectoral cooperation mechanisms in the sphere of energy, research, technology, and agriculture were being formed.

"The Permanent Mission faces ambitious tasks, and probably its number one, is to ensure the effective work of the joint committee for cooperation between Russia and ASEAN. The second one, and no less important, is the promotion of the development of a tool for cooperation between permanent representatives of countries representing the East Asia Summit," Lavrov stated.

According to Lavrov, there are about 20 ASEAN-Russia initiatives in various fields, including information and navigation technologies, food security, energy, education, transport and medicine.

Russia's Permanent Mission to ASEAN will be headed by the Ambassador Alexander Ivanov.