🗓 On January 24, the delegation of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation 🇷🇺 took part in the 14th ASEAN-Russia Tourism Consultation Meeting in Vientiane, Lao PDR 🇱🇦.

🔹️Participants outlined priority areas for the further development of ASEAN-Russia tourism cooperation and discussed activities under the relevant ASEAN-Russia Work Plan 2022-2024.

🔹️The delegates supported a number of joint projects on tourism initiated by Russia 🇷🇺, Singapore 🇸🇬 and Brunei Darussalam 🇧🇳.

🔹️The Russian initiative aimed at expanding business contacts between Russia and ASEAN tourism enterprises through Russian language training and experience exchange is to be implemented soon.

🔴 #LIVE: The UN Security Council holds a meeting to discuss the crash of the Il-76 plane.

🔗 https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1b/k1bfmfqsfl

🔗 https://twitter.com/RussiaUN/status/1750633632119603477

🔴 #LIVE: Opening of the BRICS Sherpas/sous-Sherpas Meeting, first in Russia's 2024 Chairmanship

🔗 https://www.ruptly.tv/event_route?link_id=26b640fa-1172-4277-829b-69f346e10070&provider_id=13

🔗 https://mid.ru/en/press_service/video

⚡️ On September 15 to 29 Moscow and Yekaterinburg will host the 2024 #WorldFriendshipGames, a new multi-sport tournament free from any form of discrimination.

Leading athletes from all continents are invited to take part. The only criterion for participation is the athlete's own sporting performance.

🚴‍♂️ The event will feature competitions in 33 summer sports.

🌐 About 7900 athletes from more than 70 countries are expected to take part.

Learn more

⚡️ On the UN International Court of Justice’s refusal to designate Russia as an aggressor state and the DPR and LPR as terrorist organisations in response to Ukraine’s allegations

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💬 On January 31, the UN International Court of Justice delivered its judgment on the merits in the case filed by Ukraine in January 2017 on the Application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (ICSFT). Russia’s arguments undercutting Ukraine’s groundless insinuations were heard in The Hague: the Court rejected almost all of more than 20 submissions made by Kiev during the seven-year proceedings, and left Ukraine without any reparations.

❗️The Court also dismissed Ukraine’s insinuations that the DPR and the LPR are allegedly terrorist organisations.

👉 These findings are of particular importance in light of the fact that Kiev intended to use the Court’s Judgment to support its demands for the transfer of Russian assets stolen in the West and the imposition of international restrictions on Russia.

In addition, the Court rejected Ukraine’s claim under the ICSFT that Russia should be held responsible for the crash of Boeing Flight MH17 and did not accept the Ukrainians’ allegations that the DPR was involved in the crash. During the hearing, Russia presented compelling evidence of fatal flaws in the pseudo-international investigation of the incident by the Joint Investigation Team under the umbrella of the Dutch justice system.

With regard to the events of 2014-2017, the UN International Court of Justice was unable to support Ukraine’s arguments about Russia’s alleged involvement and the guilt of the Donetsk militias in the shelling of the Bugas military checkpoint near Volnovakha, the military airfield in Kramatorsk, where the headquarters of the so-called ATO was located, and AFU positions in Mariupol and Avdeyevka, stating that these incidents did not fall under the ICSFT.

The Russian side highlighted the particular cynicism of the Ukrainian allegations: Kiev tried to present strikes against military targets as “acts of terror,” although the Ukrainian armed forces have been firing on the cities of Donbass with heavy weapons for many years, striking civilian objects, including an air strike on the building of the Lugansk regional administration on June 2, 2014, the killing of civilians in an attack on a public transport stop in Donetsk on January 22, 2015, and many other bloody crimes.

👉 Equally cynical is the way in which the Kiev regime tried to designate humanitarian aid to Donbass residents suffering from Ukrainian shelling and the economic blockade as financing terrorism.

The UN International Court of Justice stated that Russia had complied in good faith with its obligations to cooperate in the field of fighting terrorism financing, including the obligation to identify and freeze assets used to finance terrorism; to extradite or independently prosecute perpetrators of terrorist crimes; to provide mutual legal assistance; and to cooperate in the prevention of terrorist crimes. This is fully consistent with the FATF's earlier conclusions about the high level of Russia's fulfillment of its obligations in this area; the FATF assessed Ukraine's claims as being of a purely political nature.

We were bewildered, against this background, at the Court's conclusion that Russia had failed to take measures to investigate two facts contained in information received from Ukraine regarding persons who have allegedly collected funds in Russia to help the people of Donbass. The Court had to go against its own practice and set an unprecedentedly low bar for proving the applicability of the Terrorist Financing Convention when there was no evidence of either terrorism or its financing.

As a result of the proceedings, Ukraine was completely denied all claims for reparation or other forms of compensation.

⚡️ On the International Court of Justice finding no discrimination against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Russia and completely rejecting Ukraine’s reparations claims

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💬 On January 31, 2024, the UN International Court of Justice released its final Judgment in the dispute with Russia initiated by Ukraine in January 2017, based on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The court rejected practically all Ukraine’s demands and recognised that Russia’s policy conforms to its commitments under the convention. There is no discrimination against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea.

The main false accusation levelled by Kiev against Russia was that:

• Russia’s law-enforcement actions against members of the terrorist group Hizb ut-Tahrir and the extremist groups Tablighi Jamaat and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People constituted persecution of Crimean Tatars on ethnic grounds. The court did not agree with this assessment. It did not find any elements of discrimination in the standards of Russian anti-extremist legislation. Nor did it detect any signs of racial discrimination in the application of these standards by Russian law-enforcement bodies.

• The court did not find that the ban on the Mejlis, which Russia has outlawed as an extremist organisation, violated the Convention. It emphasised in its Judgment that the Qurultay is the representative body of the Crimean Tatar people. It was not banned and continues fulfilling its functions in Crimea.

• The court rejected Ukraine’s accusations of Russia’s alleged involvement in the targeted murders and abductions of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea.

• The court also rejected all Ukraine’s claims on the issues of citizenship. It did not identify any cases of racial discrimination in the Russian laws on granting citizenship in Crimea since 2014.

• Ukraine’s allegations about the infringement of the rights of the Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians to access to their national media, assemblies and rallies and the preservation of cultural heritage sites were also found to lack merit.

• Russia’s restoration of the Khan’s Palace in Bachchisarai was not a “cultural catastrophe” as Ukrainian representatives tried to present it. It was necessary to remedy the effects of negligence on the part of the Ukrainian authorities that had brought this landmark of history and culture to a dilapidated state.

• The International Court of Justice recognised that the residents of Crimea have access to education in the Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian languages. At the same time, a majority on the court ruled that the sharp reduction in the number of schools with instruction in Ukrainian after Crimea’s transfer to Russia’s jurisdiction in 2014, is a violation of its commitments on the right to education under the CERD.

☝️ This finding is controversial enough, especially considering that the court admitted that Crimeans chose instruction in Russian of their own free will. Were the Russian authorities supposed to drag children into Ukrainian schools against their will? All those who want instruction in Ukrainian will be granted this opportunity in one way or another in accordance with current legislation.

***

✅ The case is over. Russia is not supposed to take any special action to fulfil this judgment. All of Ukraine’s demands for reparations have been rejected.

🗓 On February 3, 1950, the USSR and Indonesia established diplomatic relations.

🇷🇺🇮🇩 The two nations saw traditionally friendly, partner relations take shape, which traversed a long and beneficial path over the past years. Their onward development meets the core interests of the Russian and Indonesian people.

Russia has made a significant contribution to the emergence of young Indonesian statehood and to the development of Indonesia’s economy. It also helped to build many plants and strengthen the archipelago’s defence potential.

Over the past years, we have managed to amass unique experience of joint efforts in a wide range of areas. Today, our ties are making steady headway. Moscow and Jakarta have evolved an intensive political dialogue, including at the highest level. There are regular channels for collaboration between ministries, including ministries of foreign affairs, parliaments, and companies.

🤝 Russian-Indonesian cooperation continues to develop in a constructive way. A solid legal framework has been formed. Its cornerstone is the Declaration on the Foundations of Friendly and Partner Relations in the XXI century, signed in 2003. Today we can say that our relations have actually reached the level of strategic partnership. Political dialogue is of high intensity.

Tested over the past decades, traditions of friendship and mutual understanding create conditions for further expansion and intensification of cooperation. The key to success are the invariable feelings of respect and mutual sympathy that unite the two nations.

💬 President Vladimir Putin after the Russia-Indonesia talks (June 30, 2022) : “Indonesia is one of our key partners in the Asia-Pacific. Russian-Indonesian relations are constructive and mutually beneficial and are developing steadily on the basis of long-standing traditions of friendship and mutual assistance.”

🇷🇺 Congratulations from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mr. Sergey Lavrov with the Diplomatic workers’ day 🤝

🎥 Ambassador Evgeny Zagaynov’s video greetings on Diplomatic Worker’s Day.

📚 Brief history of Russian diplomatic service
🇷🇺🌏 As well as retrospect of #RussiaASEAN relations

📰 Russia's Ambassador Evgeny Zagaynov's article “Russian diplomacy in the changing world”

👉 Read in full

Key talking points:

🔹 Every year, on February 10, Russia celebrates Diplomatic Workers' Day. This occasion serves not only to honour the achievements of Russian diplomats but also to underscore the importance of their contributions to the nation's foreign policy objectives and global engagement.

🔹 Against complex geopolitical backdrop Russia continues to play its role as a major global player and promote cooperation with its friends, the importance of effective diplomacy has never been greater. Fostering relations with the countries of Southeast Asia has traditionally been one of its priorities. These ties are deeply rooted in history.

🔹 Today, Russia is working with ASEAN and its Member States on a wide range of issues, from trade and investment to regional security and healthcare.

🔹 We are firmly committed to further contributing to our cooperation with ASEAN in the existing areas and forging new ones.