ASEAN-Russia Summit held to boost cooperation

Holidaymakers take pictures with the ASEAN-Russia Summit logo near the Sochi Congress Center. PAVEL LISITSYN/SPUTNIK

President Putin is hosting a large-scale foreign policy event in the Russian city of Sochi.

The heads of ten Southeast Asian states, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN are gathering for a two-day Summit to discuss further partnerships and to seek ways to boost their cooperation to a "fundamentally new strategic level."

It is the third high-level meeting between Russia and ASEAN and the first to be held on its territory. The first one was held in December 2005 in Kuala Lumpur and the second in October 2010 in Hanoi.

2016 marks 20 years since the launch of the ASEAN-Russia Dialogue Partnership and the Sochi Summit will review the progress that has so far been achieved.

Dialogue ASEAN-Russia was launched in July 1991 when Russian representatives were invited by the Malaysian Government to attend an ASEAN Ministerial Meeting.

Russia was subsequently elevated to a full Dialogue Partner of ASEAN in July 1996 at the 29th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia.

"ASEAN and Asia-Pacific Region are of a particular interest to Russia due to its rapid economic growth, deepening integration and modernization," Victor Sumsky, Director of the ASEAN Centre in Russia's MGIMO University, told Radio Sputnik.

"However another one of the most important characteristics is the political stability of each of its member states and of the region as a whole," he added.

Sumsky though noted that despite of it being a relatively stable zone compared to the Middle East, Eastern Europe or North Africa, the region also faces quite a number of threats and challenges.

Among those is international terrorism, which has its effect on the region, proliferation of armaments, the situation on the Korean Peninsula, some unsettled territorial disputes.

However the regional countries are interested in taking steps to make the positive achievements overweigh the negative.