Russia' s Far East development a chance to integrate into Asia-Pacific: Putin

Russia views the development of its Far Eastern regions as the opportunity to integrate into the Asia-Pacific region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said here Friday at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

"Today we see the future of the Far East as one of Russia's key centers of social and economic development, a center that should be effectively integrated into the quickly developing Asia-Pacific region," Putin said in the speech delivered at the EEF opening ceremony.

The EEF, lasting for three days until Sept. 5, is an annual event proposed by Putin to speed up the development of eastern Russia and expand multilateral cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

During his speech, Putin proposed extending the free port regime to more cities in Russia's Far East region, while the city of Vladivostok and 15 other maritime administrative districts were given the status in July.

According to Putin, infrastructure and economic development should be a top priority for the Far East. He said that regional governments should provide economic freedom and favorable business conditions for domestic as well as foreign investors.

Specific policies should be prepared to lower the tariff of transport, energy cost, electricity, among others, in order to attract investment, Putin mentioned.

While reaffirming that the Russian government is capable of stabilizing the economy through "a set of measures" , Putin urged Russian companies, particularly in the oil and gas industry, to work on developing their effectiveness and competitiveness.

The president said that Russia's state-owned oil company Rosneft plans to invest 1.3 trillion rubles (19 billion U.S. dollars) in various projects in the Far East, while around 500 billion rubles (7.4 billion dollars) would be allocated by the Russian government to modernize and expand the region's transportation networks.

When answering questions of journalists, Putin also talked about the current European refugee crisis and international task of countering terrorism.

The migrant crisis was, he said, a result of enforcing Western standards without taking into account the history, religion and culture of the Middle East and North Africa, which was bound to lead to problems.

With regard to the anti-terrorism task, Putin said details of creating a worldwide coalition are under discussion with the United States and other countries like Turkey and Egypt.

Returning from the celebrations held in China's Beijing for the 70th anniversary of victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, the president stressed that it is highly important to prevent a war similar to the World War II from happening again.

Russia will do everything to "support the true significance of what was done in the fight against Nazism and militarism in the conscience of the entire humanity," Putin said. Endi