The Deputy Prime Minister spoke at the East Asia Summit in Malaysia.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk speaks at the 20th East Asia Summit
20th East Asia Summit
Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk speaks at the 20th East Asia Summit
Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk spoke at the 20th East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur held as part of ASEAN-sponsored events.
In his remarks before the leaders of the economies participating in the forum, Overchuk emphasised the importance of dialogue and cooperation between countries in the context of a new period in global development and challenges facing countries, including growing demand for new resources, access to water, food and energy security, artificial intelligence, fragmentation of the global economy, repurposing of investment, and tariff and non-tariff barriers that have been imposed to hinder the progress of individual countries.
According to him, identifying new points of equilibrium for forming balanced international economic relations is the most important objective facing today’s multipolar world. “The centre of global economic activity has shifted to the Asia-Pacific region, and we must jointly seek economic balances between the new multipolar world centres, primarily, the countries of Northern Eurasia, Southeast Asia, North America, China, and India,” Overchuk said.
He emphasised that the Russian Federation was particularly invested in expanding partnership with ASEAN by way of strengthening Northern Eurasia macro-regions’ connectivity with the macro-regions in Southeast Asian. The positive impact of the free trade agreements concluded by Russia as an EAEU member was noted.
The Deputy Prime Minister noted that trade and economic cooperation needed better logistics in order to move forward. “Considering its geographic location and enormous transit potential, Russia is investing in global transport connectivity by building transport corridors that link Eurasia to its partners to the east and to the west, as well as to the north and to the south, and is paying close attention to expanding the capacity of its Far Eastern port infrastructure. We are establishing new container shipping routes with Southeast Asia and are working to make the Northern Sea Route fully operational,” he added.
Switching gears to food security, Alexei Overchuk said that Russia was a leader on the global food market. “As an essential food supplier, Russia is contributing to the sustainable development of agriculture to achieve global food security,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
He cited access to cheap energy as a building block of growth. “Our country is a reliable supplier of conventional energy resources. We are also a leader in nuclear energy and the world’s first country to sign an export contract for the construction of a small nuclear power plant,” he said.
He focused separately on supporting the countries of Southeast Asia. “Southeast Asia is more susceptible to natural disasters than any other region on planet Earth,” he said. “Russia will continue to provide relief to these countries, as it did in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Myanmar in March.”
Mr Overchuk also emphasised the importance of preserving cultural diversity. “Our common goal,” he said, “is to protect cultural diversity around the world.” The Deputy Prime Minister highlighted the importance of historical memory. “It is important to preserve our shared historical memory.” he said. “This year, we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and honour the nations that defeated German Nazism and Japanese militarism, suffering enormous human sacrifices before this victory became a reality.”
Alexei Overchuk noted in closing that “Russia is willing to build cooperation bridges in Eurasia and between continents, and acts as such bridge itself.” In this context, he pointed out the convergence of the fundamental goals of the East Asian Community and the Greater Eurasian Partnership, which is an initiative put forward by President Vladimir Putin designed to create a comfortable common environment for peaceful and sustainable development and to reinforce connectivity in Eurasia.
