Valdai Club

The conference, which focused on Russia’s relations with the ASEAN countries, was widely praised by participants as an open and honest dialogue.

On November 27, the Valdai Club, jointly with the Habibie Center, held a regional conference in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta titled “What are Asia’s Goals in the Asian Century?” The conference, which focused on Russia’s relations with the ASEAN countries, was widely praised by participants as an open and honest dialogue.

Valdai forum is different from most G-to-G meetings, where most of the talk is diplomatic and there is no real engagement, by its open nature, Michael Tay, ex-Ambassador of Singapore to Russia, said.

Victor Sumsky, Director of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations ASEAN Centre, noted that the Russia-ASEAN partnership continues to demonstrate positive dynamism as the bilateral trade turnover has increased from 3-4 to about 20 billion US dollars over the past 10 years. Nevertheless, he said, this is a minuscule compared to trade between ASEAN and China, the US, the EU, Japan, or even South Korea and India.

“We have to work out both strategic and tactical measures to enable a qualitative increase in this turnover, since ASEAN is Russia’s crucial partner, and the political understanding which we already have, should be underpinned economically,” Sumsky said.

Russian-Indonesian ties were obviously prominent among the conference topics. According to Sumsky, over the 70 years of its independence Indonesia has worked out what it calls an independent foreign policy: the country refuses to dance to others’ tunes and in this sense its foreign policy philosophy is very close to that of Russia. “Practice has shown that we easily achieve understanding on both regional and global issues,” he said.

Ahmad Fahrurodji, Head of the University of Indonesia Department of Russia Studies, also referred to the history of bilateral ties by saying that Indonesia remembers what he called Russia’s huge support to its nascent statehood, although now the relations have become more practical, economy-oriented, than back then, in Khruschev’s times. According to him, it is time for Russia to express the willingness to give more attention to the Asia, which is part of its own identity. “First of all, Russia has to gain the heart of the Asian people”, he said.

He was echoed by Michael Tay who said Russia should be more present in Asia, where the global economic growth is shifting. Russia’s involvement with the ASEAN states is “the right move with or without the present problems of Russia,” he said referring to the current tensions between Russia and the West.

The BRICS bloc was another topic widely discussed during the conference. According to Georgy Toloraya, Executive Director of the Russian National Committee on BRICS Research, BRICS is “a union of reformers of the international system – first of all, in its financial and economic aspects”. Over the past years it has become clear that the world’s financial architecture cannot be changed without modifying the basics of the world order, he said. “In this sense BRICS is a force which can, or cannot, change the world for the better”.

Toloraya brushed aside suspicions that BRICS is an anti-Western bloc. “All of the BRICS states are immensely interested in cooperation with the West and do not want to be alienated from the developed states. It is a matter of compromise between the ascending states and the established world powers”, he said.

Meanwhile, Michael Tay was cautious about the prospects of the BRICS Development Bank. “I think at the moment it is more politically driven, because all the central banks and the banking institutions of these countries are at very different levels of development,” he said. According to Tay, the process makes sense politically, but will take some time to complete. “I do not expect overnight for this to replace the ADB [Asian Development Bank] or the World Bank or other banks existing in the region,” he concluded.