14th ASEAN-Russia senior officials' meeting held in Lao capital

The Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the 14th ASEAN-Russia Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) on Wednesday in capital Vientiane to review recent cooperation.

The meeting was co-chaired by Lao Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Laos' ASEAN SOM Leader Thongphane Savanphet, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and SOM Leader of the Russian Federation Igor V. Morgulov.

The meeting reviewed the cooperation between ASEAN and Russia over the past year, especially in following up on the outcomes of the ASEAN-Russia Commemorative Summit to mark the 20th Anniversary of ASEAN-Russia Dialogue Relations held in March last year in Sochi, Russia, Lao News Agency (KPL) reported.

In addition, the meeting discussed priority areas for cooperation, based on the recommendations of the ASEAN-Russia Eminent Persons Group, and charted out the future direction for ASEAN-Russia cooperation spanning across political-security and economic and socio-cultural areas through encouraging closer cooperation and coordination between the sectoral bodies of ASEAN-Russia to ensure the effective implementation of the ASEAN-Russia Comprehensive Plan of Action 2016-2020, aiming at elevating ASEAN-Russia Dialogue Partnership to a strategic level in the future.

At the meeting, representatives from ASEAN and Russia also discussed preparations for the upcoming ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) +1 Session with the Russian Federation to be held in August 2017 in the Philippines, and also exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern.

Lao PDR recently assumed its three-year term of Country Coordinator for ASEAN-Russia Dialogue Relations which will continue until August 2018, according to KPL. Endit