Foreword

Summary

This book based on the IMEMO-ISEAS Moscow Conference of October 2006 is the second in the series. At the Moscow conference, one of the major themes discussed was the rise of China and its impact upon the Asia-Pacific economies, politics and security. The other major theme was the economic rise of Asia, as manifest in the increasing number of Free Trade Agreements, but which has not as yet involved the Russian Federation. These themes are discussed in detail in the conference papers published in this book.

Russia has steadily stabilized under the firm rule of President Putin over the past seven years. Buoyed by rising energy exports and high oil and gas prices, Russia has enjoyed steady and high economic growth for the past three years.

ASEAN on its part, has regained economic growth and stability ever since the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98. This has been due to the financial reforms put into place to prevent a recurrence of the crisis and also partly due to the economic growth and momentum of China's stellar growth, which has acted as an economic locomotive on the neighbouring economies.

With both sides of the dialogue enjoying steady growth, Russia and ASEAN are now rediscovering each other in various ways. For instance, some ASEAN countries that had postponed arms purchases from Russia were now able to place their orders once again. Visits by ASEAN leaders, like Malaysian Prime Minister A. Badawi and Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to Moscow in mid-2007 have taken place, whilst Russian ministers have also visited ASEAN countries. Indeed, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of Singaporean interactions with Russia in 2006–07, ranging from helping to set up two Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Russia, increased investments and trade, Singapore Airlines (SIA) flights to Moscow, helping to upgrade airports, etc. Singapore has taken note of the increasing Russian prosperity, and has seized the opportunity to expand its economic space with Russia, just as it has done in the Middle East.