© kremlin.ru
Russian President Vladimir Putin • Plenary session of Eighth Eastern Economic Forum
The issues of today shape the agenda of tomorrow. Rarely is that truer than in today's transformative climate...
The 2023 Eastern Economic Forum offered a kind of checkup in seeing how Russia's 'pivot to Asia' policy has responded to the demands and needs that emerged last year. It met in Vladivostok for the seventh time. It was first held in 2015, and since then, only the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 forced its suspension.
For the second year, the forum was held in the context of the acute military and political confrontation between Russia and the West,
the main consequence of which - for the global economy - has been the economic war unleashed against us by the US and its allies. The Asian countries, with which the EEF has traditionally focused on intensifying cooperation, are, with a few exceptions,
not involved in this war. Of all the regional powers, only Japan has initiated sanctions against Russia, although it is taking a more moderate approach than the US satellites in Western Europe.
Even now, Japanese companies are continuing cooperation projects in the energy sector, for example. Another close American ally in Asia, South Korea, has been reluctant to comply with Western sanctions, and comes across as apologetic each time it is forced to impose new restrictions on trade and technological exchanges with Russia. All the other Asian states have avoided imposing sanctions of their own, although they do not always share Moscow's position on European and international security issues.
In other words,
Asia - as a region - has become Russia's 'gateway' to the global economy, is most active in trade with us, and is engaged in dialogue at the intergovernmental level. This is also confirmed by the results of an analysis conducted by the experts of the Valdai Club in a recently published report on the dynamics of relations between Russia and the Asian countries over the past year and a half.
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