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Daily News Bulletin

28.01.2004

Article of Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov in the Journal Aziya i Afrika Segodnya (Asia and Africa Today), Published in Issue 1, 2004, under the Heading:

Russia in Asia and Asia in Russia

137-28-01-2004

Definitively and irrevocably the times are gone when Russia, to use the great Russian poet Alexander Blok's phrase, "held the shield between two hostile races" - Europe and Asia. In our days Russia plays an entirely different role, that of a connecting link between East and West. That role is determined by the multivector character of Russian foreign policy, in which the European and Asian tilts mutually complement each other in the interest of strengthening the country's positions in the international arena as a whole.

Russia's national interests objectively require heightened attention to the Asian tilt. This stems in the first place from the dynamic growth of the Asian continent turning into a strong financial and economic community oriented towards science-intensive, high technology industries. Suffice it to say that the world's third space nation, China, appeared precisely in Asia. The Asian countries account for about 25 percent of the world's GDP, 24 percent of world commodity exports and more than 40 percent of the world's gold and foreign exchange reserves (1 trillion dollars of the 2.5 trillion). A characteristic feature - after the notorious financial crisis of 1997-1998 that had shaken the Asian continent, 87 percent of the increase in gold and foreign exchange reserves fell precisely on Asia. At the present time over 40 percent of world investment flows go into the Asian area. Finally, it is enough to just glance at the outward look of the largest Asian cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Seoul, to see that Asia has over the last 20-30 years ceased to be a periphery of world life and is steadily turning into one of the leading centers of world politics and economy.

Against this background, unfortunately, the economic and social conditions look entirely different in the Asian part of our country. This contrast is all the more unnatural as the eastern regions of Russia possess enormous potential - considerable natural resource stocks, a powerful industrial, technological and scientific base, and the creative and intellectual resources of the population.

I cannot agree with the conjectures about foreign threats for Russia in the East, about a "de-Russification" of Siberia and Russia's far east being purposefully conducted from the outside. This kind of searches for an "external enemy" mean essentially an attempt to shift the blame to others for our own mistakes and blunders and to justify our own inaction and inefficiency.

It is another matter that in the Asian-Pacific economic community there goes the tough competitive struggle in which each state, in order to secure its commercial interests, employs the whole arsenal of levers that it possesses - political, financial-economic and other. Such is the reality in which we also have to work, and there is no alternative because without shaping a favorable external environment and the "rules of the game" suitable for us in the region, without our active participation in regional economic integration, to overcome the economic and social problems of Russia's eastern regions will simply be impossible.

It has been this assessment that has served in recent years as a starting point for the substantial intensification of our policy in the Asian sector. In this connection I would like to share my thoughts about what has already been done by us here and, most important, what remains to be done.

Just as the situation in the world develops according to objective laws, so is the foreign policy of any state based on several absolute principles, among which one of the key ones is the shaping, along the perimeter of one's borders, of a belt of friendly, good-neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Of fundamental importance in this sense for Russian interests are Russia's relations with its largest neighbor, China. They can today be described as the best in all of their history. A major achievement is the easing of military tension along our borders. Military confidence-building measures are effectively in place. The Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation of July 16, 2001, states expressly that the sides have no territorial claims to each other. All of this marks a new stage in the more than 300-year complex history of relations between the two states.

As never before, mutual trust between the two states has become firmly established. The leaders of Russia and China meet, as a rule, two or three times a year. Broad and active is coordination between Russia and China on the international scene. We have identical or similar positions with China on virtually all the acute problems of the international situation. Our trade and economic ties have moved substantially forward. In 2003 trade may exceed the 15 billion dollars mark. It is important that, unlike previous times, nonstate trade accounts for more than 80 percent of the turnover.

Of course, in the extensive mutual relations between Russia and China problems cannot but arise, stemming mostly from the rapid growth of bilateral cooperation. It is necessary, for example, to continue our efforts to regularize the migration processes. An important role in this matter is allotted to the appropriate joint working group that has recently been established. Work is under way on the further mutual expansion of the network of consular agencies of Russia and China, which also helps eliminate certain issues that arise.

A great deal has yet to be improved in the area of trade-and-economic ties. The greatest portion of them is currently accounted for by either transactions between major companies or by the activities of "shuttle traders." There is a certain vacuum in the most promising area - contacts between members of small and medium-sized business. Another major thrust is the development of investment cooperation. China's plans to revive the industrial base of the PRC's northeast, and the Russian program of developing our far eastern region are opening up new opportunities in this field.

Once again I want to stress: without vigorous efforts to attract our Asian neighbors, including China, a rapid development of the eastern regions of Russia is impossible. In this regard, we need a weighty Asian presence in Russia's east as much as we do the integration of the Russian economy into the emerging new economic space of Asia. This is our strategic task for years to come, whose accomplishment would substantially advance the economic development of all of Russia, not just of its eastern regions.

Over the recent period we have succeeded in creating quite good opportunities for the development of relations with our other eastern neighbor, Japan. It is this kind of perspective that is set into the Russian-Japanese Plan of Action, approved at the highest level. And here special focus is on large-scale Russian-Japanese commercial and economic cooperation, without which it is impossible to move forward in solving the political issues that we have with Japan.

In the southern sector, the obvious priority for Russia is its relations with India. With the signing in October 2000 of the Declaration of Strategic Partnership Russia and India have reached a qualitative new level of cooperation. One of the latest striking testimonies to this was the signing at the Moscow summit in November of the Declaration on Global Challenges and Threats to International Security and Stability, recording the concurrence of our assessments on the basic problems of international life.

In the field of bilateral relations Moscow and New Delhi devote primary attention to achieving a breakthrough in the commercial and economic field. Progress is there: trade in the first eight months of 2003 exceeded 2 billion dollars (against 2.1 billion dollars in 2002). But then, those figures could have been significantly higher. Substantial reserves exist: the priority must be a trade buildup through machinery, equipment and science-intensive exports, along with more vigorous promotion of projects in the fields of interbank ties, transport communications and energy resource development.

Of course, the military-political situation in South Asia is not left outside our field of vision, either. Russia has welcomed the initiatives of the Indian Prime Minister, aimed at improving relations with Pakistan. We hope that the sides will continue to carry out effectively the complex of measures directed towards the suppression of cross-border terrorism, which has become the root cause of serious tension between these states. This would open the way for a resumption of the full-format Indian-Pakistani dialogue, as provided by the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Accords of 1999.

The explosive situation on the Korean Peninsula, right at our far eastern borders, remains an object of heightened attention on Russia's part. Ensuring the denuclearized status of the peninsula and keeping it in the sphere of nuclear nonproliferation, along with developing peaceful cooperation in Northeast Asia with our direct involvement, corresponds to the interests of Russia, just as of other states. That is why we attach great importance to the talks on these issues with the participation of Russia and count on them to lead in the end to the establishment of a system of reliable security in this region.

Two years have passed since the Taliban regime was overthrown in Afghanistan. Much has since been done, including with the constructive and active role of Russia, for that state to become a normal member of the international community living in peace with its neighbors. The very fact is important for us that the base was undermined from which financial, material, ideological and other support had been provided for the activities of terrorist groups within the territory of our country. At the same time there continues and even increases the production of Afghan narcotic drugs, which poses a direct threat to Russia. It is early to say that a final blow has been dealt to terrorism in Afghanistan. There should continue energetic joint efforts by the international community to normalize the situation in that country. A weakening of those efforts will inevitably lead to a revival of the Taliban menace.

Recently we have managed to substantially increase the potential of Russian relations with such priority Asian partners for us as Mongolia, the ROK, the DPRK, Iran, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia, not to mention our close cooperation with the Asian member states of the CIS - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

It is of fundamental importance that with none of the countries of Asia does Russia have any contradictions that might lead to conflict. Moreover, with most of them we have similar views on the questions of a world pattern and of building a pan-Asian system of security and cooperation. When our Asian partners are saying that they are interested in a strong, economically powerful and politically active Russia as a factor of stability and development in Asia - and we hear that quite often - this is not merely a tribute to traditional politeness, but the truth. And no small achievement, recalling the caution and probably even distrust toward us that prevailed in Asia only fifteen years ago; for this change has been achieved through the painstaking, purposeful work in the Asian sector that had been conducted under the leadership and with the personal participation of the President of Russia.

In work on the Asian track, we take into account one more recent feature of very great importance. It is the noticeable growth in vigor of the multilateral associations there, along with the appearance of new collective mechanisms. This kind of tendency meets our interests and leads to the creation in the Asia Pacific Region of a security and cooperation infrastructure operating on the basis of the principles of multipolarity and equality.

The new conditions have demanded the adaptation to them of the multilateral Asian structures that have already acquitted themselves, as well as the establishment of associations of a new type which are oriented towards values and tasks entirely different than those in the era of confrontation.

Of particular importance among the latter for Russia are the activities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, made up of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The SCO is a phenomenon in many respects unique for Asia. It is a multilateral association possessing very serious positive potentialities. Suffice it to say that among its members are two nuclear powers, which are also permanent UN Security Council members and the key states of Central Asia. The geographical space of the SCO extends from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and the total population of its participants exceeds 1.5 billion. It is hard to overestimate the resource base and the scientific, technological, financial and human potential which member states collectively possess.

But most important, the SCO is an organization being established not as an instrument for opposing any other states, but as a multifunctional mechanism of cooperation among the six countries in tackling problems common to them and to all of humanity. We are convinced that that approach corresponds most fully to the new paradigm of ensuring joint security at the regional and global levels.

As of today, the organizational phase in the creation of the SCO has practically been gone through - from January 2004 its major principal mechanisms are being launched: the Secretariat in Beijing and the Regional Antiterrorist Structure with headquarters in Tashkent. Thus, the SCO is entering the year 2004 as a full-fledged international organization. This work has been accomplished in an unprecedentedly short - by the criteria of creation of such multilateral structures - time. It will be recalled that just slightly more than two years passed from the moment of the declaration of the intention to establish the SCO at the meeting of the six heads of state that was held in Shanghai on June 15, 2001.

The SCO even at its organizational stage spoke loud and clear. It was the first among regional organizations to react to the acts of terrorism in the United States on September 11, 2001, and then - in the joint statement of the foreign ministers of member states of January 7, 2002 - called for a systematized struggle against terrorism. Many of the provisions of this statement are already being implemented. Another example of the SCO's active stand in international life is the declarations of the SCO St. Petersburg (June 7, 2002) and Moscow (May 29, 2003) Summits, which formulated a common philosophy of member states relative to the processes developing in the world.

A great deal has also been done in terms of fostering practical ties within the SCO - the mechanisms of cooperation between the ministries of transport, economic development, emergency situations, culture, defense and others are being tested and improved. There has been adopted the long-term (up to the year 2020) Program of Multilateral Trade-and-Economic Cooperation that determines the basic guidelines and stages for economic integration in the SCO area.

This organization is being regarded by the world community as a geopolitical reality that has materialized and as an important constructive factor of international life.

Russia's partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has turned out to be a kind of "nucleus" of integration processes in the AP region, is reaching a qualitatively new level. The first step towards the formation of a legal and regulatory base for Russian relations with ASEAN was taken in June 2003 with the signing in Phnom Penh of the Russian-ASEAN Joint Declaration on Partnership in the Cause of Peace and Security, Prosperity and Development in the Asia Pacific Region. Coming next are the joint documents on economic cooperation, as well as on counterterrorist cooperation.

The ASEAN philosophy of multilateral cooperation, and the Association's firm adherence to the Charter of the United Nations and to political methods of settlement of issues fully correspond to our interests in the AP region. A major platform for their assurance remains the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) as a key forum for security dialogue, the only intergovernmental political institution with regional dimensions as of now and a leading instrument of multilateral dialogue on the full range of questions relating to the strengthening of peace and stability in the region.

The unprecedented flare of terrorist activity in recent years has called for giving a new assessment to challenges and threats in the AP region. Taking this circumstance into account, Russia together with the Philippines assumed co-chairmanship in 2003-2004 in the new ARF mechanism launched in March 2003 - Intersessional Meetings on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime.

Neither can I fail to mention the major initiative of our Kazakhstan partners for establishing a pan-Asian dialogue in the form of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICBMA). The very fact that the Conference brought together the representatives of sixteen different states, among many of which there linger serious contradictions - Israel, Palestine, Iran, India, Pakistan and others - is no small achievement. Adopted in June 2002 at the first meeting of the heads of state and government of the CICBMA member states, the "Almaty Act" represents a weighty political document establishing a framework for elaborating collective approaches towards the consolidation of security and mutual trust in the Asian area. In development of the Act, work has begun on a CICBMA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures - the first one in such a broad format in Asian history.

Russia had from the outset backed the initiative of the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and joined the initiative group of states that assumed the work to promote the CICBMA. The Russian diplomatic experts have been making a constructive contribution to the formation of mutual understanding among the 16 participating states of the Conference.

We regard the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum as an advanced instrument for combining the business interests of the countries of the AP region. In this vast region, this is the only platform for substantive multilateral discussion at the highest level of the vital tasks of economic development and the search of ways for movement towards sustainable development acceptable to all.

Our business circles are becoming ever more actively involved in APEC activities, and through this Forum - in Asian-Pacific integration ties. This is a positive new result of Russia's "turn" towards the Asian space.

Russia is a comparatively young, but respected Forum participant; we have been working there for a period of five years now. But we are already credited with comprehensive activities in all the specialized fields, the holding of fairs and conferences within Russia, and concrete proposals, such as, for example, the initiative endorsed by the recent APEC Bangkok Summit to launch a regional dialogue on nonferrous metals. We hold enterprising positions in the Forum-led struggle against terrorism by economic and financial methods, and in countering other "new challenges." The Russian intellectual and resource potential can and will make a significant contribution to the common economic "piggy bank" of the APEC "family."

On the whole now in Asia, in the AP region we're witnessing new opportunities for a uniting of the efforts of individual states, their bilateral cooperation and the activities of the regional associations to establish an operating network of pan-regional interaction. The aim of that architecture of mutual relations is common security and the creation of optimal conditions for the prosperity of the region and each state in particular. As the Chinese poetic genius Bo Juyi wrote with oriental subtlety and allegory, the intertwined roots of various plants mature together, using for the good of each other their stalks and leaves alike.

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