🇷🇺🇸🇬 Embassy of Russian in Singapore:

❗️ The Embassy has taken note of the article by Dr Tommy Koh titled "What to Make of #ASEAN's Ties with Russia", published in the #StraitsTimes on September 17, 2024.

As a former senior diplomat and a respected expert on international affairs, Dr Koh undoubtedly possesses a deep understanding of the essence of the #RussiaASEAN dialogue partnership. However, the assertion that this relationship is "thin on substance" appears exaggerated and lacking in nuance. This claim cannot be considered impartial.

🤝 The Russia-ASEAN partnership has consistently been of a strategic nature, well before its formal elevation in November 2018. It extends far beyond mere trade and arms supplies, as Dr. Koh sought to convey to his readership. The ties between Russia and ASEAN encompass a wide array of strategically significant issues, both regionally and globally: energy and food security, addressing non-conventional security threats such as terrorism, extremism, and transnational crime, cooperation in international information security and emergency response, training of law enforcement personnel, and volunteering, among others. In January, Russia was conferred the status of ASEAN's digital partner. The relationship also thrives on vibrant people-to-people exchanges, as well as youth, cultural, educational, and scientific cooperation.

It is factually inaccurate to state that only two ASEAN member states have enjoyed very close relations with Russia and supported Moscow along its ongoing efforts to combat the #neoNazism in #Ukraine. However, the fact is that only one ASEAN member state has imposed unilateral sanctions against us in the absence of a UNSC resolution. Besides, attributing Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s recent visit to Vladivostok for the Eastern Economic Forum (#EEF) to dissatisfaction with the US policy in the Middle East is both overly simplistic and unfounded. #RussiaMalaysia relations are built on a long history of amicable and substantive cooperation, with further significant achievements on the horizon.

☝️ The ASEAN member states regard Russia as a stabilizing, independent and trustworthy actor in the region's foreign policy, one that brings strategic equilibrium and, unlike certain other powers with neocolonial ambitions, refrains from meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign nations, resorting neither to coercion nor manipulation.

On January 27, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov convened a customary meeting with the ambassadors of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (#ASEAN) member states accredited in Moscow.

The attendees engaged in a substantive dialogue regarding the execution of resolutions made by the leaders of our nation and the ASEAN 10 nations concerning the advancement of the Russia-ASEAN strategic partnership, alongside the preparation of a new programme document for the medium term. The primary focus was on initiatives to enhance practical collaboration, including the involvement of the ASEAN Moscow Committee. Steps were delineated to diversify cooperation across the domains of economy, energy, science and high technologies, digital transformation, and the expansion of business and youth exchanges.

🎙 Briefing by Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (January 31, 2025)

🔹 Tragedy in the airspace over Washington
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Kiev regime crimes
🔹 Anniversary of breaking the Siege of Leningrad
🔹 80th Anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by the Red Army
🔹 80th Anniversary of the Yalta Conference
🔹 International Holocaust Remembrance Day
🔹 Falsification of history
🔹 Further facts about the crimes of Japanese militarism
🔹 Situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

📰 Read
📺 Watch

***

#USA #PotomacRiverTragedy

In the evening of January 29, a passenger plane and a military helicopter collided in mid-air over Washington, killing 67 people. We express our deep condolences to the victims’ families and the American people.

#FalsificationOfHistory

The collective West is bent on erasing all positive developments from historical memory and smearing the Red Army rather than preserving memory and thanking their liberators [of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp], our soldiers, who defeated the Third Reich.

Zelensky’s appearance in Oswiecim sparked an outrage among Poland’s religious Jewish community. Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said its representatives refused to go to an event attended by a dictator who has domesticated Nazis.

#KievRegimeCrimes #NeoNazism

The modern-day Bandera followers are trying to keep up with their ideological cult figures and continue to terrorise civilians and to attack civilian infrastructure in the Russian regions.

The representatives of the Kiev regime are neo-Nazis, not only in relation to the Russian-speaking population, but also to all citizens of Ukraine. Genocide of its own population is underway in Ukraine, and it is committed by those whom the people of Ukraine voted for as their leaders.

The Kiev regime is doing its utmost to erase the memory of the liberator soldiers, who were Russians and people of other Soviet nationalities, including many Ukrainians. Nationalists are maniacally demolishing the monuments and graves of Red Army soldiers throughout Ukraine, or rather in what’s left of Ukraine due to actions of the Kiev regime and its Western sponsors.

The Kiev regime continues to deride the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Westerners have always been behind the lawlessness and legal chaos in Ukraine. They use the dirtiest methods to destroy Orthodoxy in Ukraine, distort it beyond recognition, and replace concepts.

#Sanctions #USA

Western sanctions and weaponising reserve currencies by Washington and its satellites have undermined the international players’ confidence in the global financial architecture based on the dominance of the US dollar and the euro, which has led to an increase in the share of alternative monetary units in international payments and savings.

Acting as part of associations such as #BRICS, the #SCO, #ASEAN, and on a bilateral footing, member countries are stepping up the dialogue on using national currencies in mutual trade and taking steps to build the necessary payment and settlement infrastructure that would be independent of Western countries.

#GreatPatrioticWar #YaltaConference

On February 4, 1945, a conference with the participation of the three Allied leaders opened in Livadia Palace outside Yalta.

Thanks largely to the efforts of Soviet diplomacy, the decisions adopted at the Yalta Conference had a great influence on bringing an early end to the Second World War and the post-war organisation of the world, and became an integral part of the Yalta-Potsdam system of international relations.

#DRC

The security situation in [in the Democratic Republic of the Congo] once again deteriorated this January as the March 23 Movement (M23) intensified its offensive. On January 27, M23 captured Goma, the administrative centre of the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is home to more than one million civilians.

📄 Article by Deputy Director of the Foreign Policy Planning Department at the Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Alexander Trofimov for the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies "Security across the Eurasian Space: The Architecture that Unites"

Read in full

Key points:

• On June 14 President Vladimir Putin speaking at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs put forward the initiative to create a Eurasian security architecture. <…> It is an element of the long-term strategy of a strong power, which has always been a significant part of the Eurasian continent. This idea takes on a special role against the backdrop of the gradual formation of a multipolar world, as it is essentially designed to contribute to the development of this trend.

• After the disintegration of the USSR, Russia’s attempts to become part of the process of cooperation in the field of security were linked to Euro-Atlantic schemes. <...> The US and its allies in NATO did not intend to take Russia’s interests into account from the very beginning. They did not plan to fulfill the political commitments undertaken within the OSCE framework — to respect the principle of equal and indivisible security in the Euro-Atlantic region.

• It was NATO and the EU nations that destroyed the military-political dimension of the OSCE. The assurances given to the Soviet leadership about the non-expansion of the alliance eastward were effectively disavowed. From 1999 to 2024, seven waves of expansion took place, as a result of which the size of the military bloc doubled — from 16 to 32 states.

• Since recently, NATO has claimed a leading role not only in its traditional zone of responsibility but also throughout the entire Eurasia. As stated in the documents, threats to the alliance emanate from the Asia-Pacific region, therefore NATO intends to assert its military dominance in the east of Eurasia.

❗️ In the emerging multipolarity era, resolving security issues in the Eurasian space is of decisive importance for mitigating external threats to Russia and for maintaining global stability.

• The Russian initiative to establish an architecture of indivisible Eurasian security corresponds to the logic of the regionalization of international relations, serves the tasks of building a world order based on polycentric principles, and responds to the entire array of security challenges and threats along the perimeter and on the territory of the continent.

• This endeavor is based on the understanding of the need for states and multilateral structures of Eurasia to assume primary responsibility for their own security in accordance with the principle ‘Eurasian solutions to Eurasian problems’ without interference from outside.

• There is no all-inclusive multilateral organization in Eurasia which is the largest and the richest continent. However, a whole range of subregional structures operate on Eurasian soil — the Union State of Belarus and Russia, #CSTO, #CIS, #SCO, #ASEAN, #GCC, #CICA.

• Russia is not pushing an idea of creating an organization or political and military association. In the heterogeneous space of Eurasia, the architecture we are envisaging can only be integral — modular and intertwining simultaneously. <...> Russia proposes the prospect of developing a network, rather than a hierarchical system, without predetermining what it will come out in the end.

• The architecture of Eurasian security proposed by our country can only be inclusive. We are not talking just about some kind of ‘smaller Eurasia’ that would comprise Russia and its neighbors. All states located on the continent can join the dialogue.

• We are ready for interaction with European countries as well. However, joint work is possible only with those of them who have renounced a hostile course towards other Eurasian states.

👉 The initiative to create a Eurasian security architecture is designed to address appropriately to a wide range of challenges and threats. In essence, it aims to promote stability, cooperation and development throughout Eurasia.

🗓May 29 marks the #EAEU Day.

🔹️Since the EAEU’s foundation, its member states have achieved visible results in promoting integration, with the internal market on the rise, steadily growing mutual trade and widened geography of international contacts.

❗️#ASEAN is one of the most important partners for the EAEU. Based on the MoU between the Eurasian Economic Commission and ASEAN and relevant Programme of cooperation the two regional organizations steadfastly promote multifaceted mutually beneficial relations.

🔹️Since 2018 the St.Petersburg International Economic Forum is hosting an annual EAEU-ASEAN Business Dialogue.

🔹️In 2024 the EAEU-ASEAN Business Dialogue was held twice - on the margins of the 27th St.Petersburg International Economic Forum 🇷🇺 in June and the International business forum "World of Opportunities: Russia-ASEAN" in Malaysia 🇲🇾 in November.

🔹️In 2023 the EAEU Days were held at the ASEAN Headquarters in Jakarta. The event included Exhibition, Food Festival highlighting the national cuisines of the EAEU Member States and 2 round tables "Strengething ASEAN-EAEU Ties: the Role of Business Communities" and "EAEU and ASEAN Economic Agenda: Overlapping Interests".

📌The Memorandum of Understanding between the EEC and ASEAN on Economic Cooperation was signed on November 14, 2018 in Singapore. To implement the Memorandum, a Cooperation Program for 2020–2025 was adopted. It covers such areas as customs legislation and law enforcement practice, trade policy, entrepreneurship, technical and antimonopoly regulation, SPS measures, energy, functioning of domestic markets, and others.

🤝The EAEU also pays special attention to strengthening ties with ASEAN Member States on the bilateral basis. Free trade agreement of the EAEU is in force with Vietnam 🇻🇳. The trade talks with Indonesia 🇮🇩 are nearing completion.