Ambassador Galuzin: Russia is 'Open for Dialogues with Indonesia'

Liputan6.com, Jakarta The gradual rise of giant economic engine in Southeast Asian region such as Indonesia and other 9 ASEAN nations within this sphere and the evidently increased trade ties between Russia and ASEAN states up to 13% in 2014 despite challenging global economic conditions have all contributed to the deepening ties of all member states of ASEAN to Russia.

“We have partnered up with ASEAN since 1996. Partnership between Russia and ASEAN since its inception includes political, security, economic, investment, social and cultural cooperation,” Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Mikhail Galuzin said during a press briefing held earlier this afternoon at his residence in Kuningan, Jakarta.

Ambassador Galuzin also informs that President Vladimir Putin is due to host the 2016 Russia-ASEAN summit at Black Sea resort of Sochi this May. He further informs that both ASEAN and Russia have documents symbolizing concrete ways of cooperating with one another.

According to him, financial cooperation is actualized through the effective use of “financial resources to implement various projects and to support ASEAN activities in economic, science and technology areas as well as personal trainings and other fields”.

Indonesian President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo is expected to represent the archipelago state at the Summit which will be hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We hope to reach mutually advantageous agreements on traditional and renewable energy sources, emergency and disaster response, food security and agriculture at the Russia-ASEAN summit next year in Sochi,” President Putin wrote in the article published by leading APEC media last year, as cited in Russian News Agency.

Ambassador Galuzin states that Russia is “open for dialogues with Indonesia” especially to follow up on recent visitation made by Russian Minister of Industry to Indonesia where he met with President Jokowi, Indonesian Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution, Minister of National Development Sofyan Djalil and other high ranking government officials on January 8 2016.