CURRENTLY, the Asia-Pacific region (APR) is developing integration processes involving such large states as China, Japan, the United States, the Republic of Korea, India, and the European Union. Perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is the "core" of these processes, a kind of field of attraction for both Asian and non-regional "players". And this is despite the fact that each of the ASEAN countries individually is incomparable in its power with many of the Association's" heavyweight " partners.

There are several reasons for this situation. Of course, both the Asian dimension of globalization and the specifics of the international community's current fight against terrorism play a role. The territory of Southeast Asia after the defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is not without reason perceived as one of the possible zones of shelter and activity of terrorist groups. Hence the increased attention paid to these countries by the members of the anti-terrorist coalition, and above all by the United States.

However, in addition to these factors, the attractiveness of ASEAN for its partners, including Russia, is largely due to the fact that the Association has now become one of the most authoritative and dynamically developing organizations for multidisciplinary cooperation not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but also in the world.

Over the years of its development, the Association has gained a unique experience in the collective development of a common line of conduct in the international arena, as well as in the practice of jointly finding ways to solve the internal problems of Southeast Asia based on the principles of consensus, mutual assistance, consultation, trust, tolerance, and consideration of the interests of all parties involved. As a result, ASEAN has become the basic structure of multilateral regional cooperation, which plays a key role in the main mechanisms of political and economic interaction in the Asia-Pacific region, and an organization that, in its internal development, has come very close to the real implementation of its slogan "Unity in Diversity".

35 years ago, achieving such unity seemed highly unlikely. In the Southeast Asian region, there was a significant potential for conflict in relations between countries, primarily in the form of territorial disputes that escalated in the 70s, in which Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore were involved. During the same period, the region gradually began to turn into an arena of ideological struggle between communist and capitalist ideologies, which was expressed in the escalation of the Vietnam War and the activation of China's policy of spreading the "cultural revolution" to Southeast Asia.

The current situation began to pose a direct threat to the security of the region, and there was a real danger of drawing it into the conflict.

Alexander Anatolyevich Ivanov-Head of the Department of General Asian Problems of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Candidate of Historical Sciences.

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a cold war with unpredictable consequences for the Southeast Asian countries. Against this background, the need to overcome intra-regional contradictions and unite in order to collectively determine models for further development of the region, ensuring security, and effective economic and political cooperation has become obvious.

The awareness of this need, the political will and vision of the leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, despite all the difficulties, prevailed. Having managed to overcome their differences, the founding fathers of ASEAN gathered in Bangkok on August 8, 1967, where they signed the founding document of the Association-the Bangkok Declaration. It was based on the task of "strengthening economic and social stability and ensuring overall peaceful national development." At the same time, the goal was to unite all ten states of the region so that the Association could express "the united will of the Southeast Asian States to bind themselves in the bonds of friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, ensure peace, freedom and prosperity for their peoples and future generations."

No matter how utopian the idea of co-existence of the entire "dozen" Southeast Asian countries under one "umbrella" seemed in 1967, it was implemented. Brunei joined the Association in 1984. Many of those who were pessimistic about the organization's prospects were surprised when, in 1995, it welcomed its former rival, Vietnam, into its ranks. Vietnam was followed by Laos and Myanmar in 1997, and finally Cambodia in 1999. Bringing together all the countries of the region, the Association demonstrated its commitment to the principles of region-wide cooperation for the benefit and prosperity of Southeast Asia, proclaimed in the Bangkok Declaration, based on compliance with international legal norms of state sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, and the right of each country to choose its own model of state development. Currently, the Association unites countries of various economic and political systems with a population of about half a billion people and a combined GNP exceeding $ 660 billion.

The long process of unification of the Southeast Asian countries did not mean passivity in the activities of ASEAN. Despite the emphasized priority of developing economic cooperation within the Association, it is the political component of intra-Asean cooperation that became a priority immediately after its formation.

The development of the situation on the world stage required the ASEAN members to coordinate their foreign policy actions and develop an active position on major international issues. In this case, the unifying point was the common desire of the Southeast Asian countries to maintain their neutrality and prevent the spread of ideological and military confrontation to the region (the ASEAN members developed the doctrine of the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality in Southeast Asia, a number of countries of the Association were active participants in the Non-Aligned Movement), as well as to non-proliferation, disarmament, etc. Major regional issues,

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The main issues that the Association countries had to make collective efforts to address were the Cambodian crisis, which was resolved peacefully largely thanks to the diplomatic mediation of the ASEAN countries, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the danger of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the region, and the fight against separatism and extremism.

A TURNING POINT in the process of turning the Association into a basic element of regional stability was its launch of such a significant initiative as the creation of the ASEAN Regional Security Forum (ARF).

Established in 1994, the ARF is still the only regional intergovernmental political institution in the Asia-Pacific region, a leading tool for multilateral political dialogue on the entire range of issues related to strengthening peace and stability in the region. The Forum brings together 22 countries in the region, including Russia, the United States, China, Japan, India, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Korea, and the European Union. The DPRK has been taking a full part in the negotiation process within the ARF since 2000.

The main goal of the Forum was to promote peace and security, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region by gradually moving from confidence-building measures to developing mechanisms for preventive diplomacy and establishing methods for resolving conflicts in the region. Over the past eight years, the ARF has done a lot of work on developing confidence-building measures and methods of preventive diplomacy that contribute to expanding cooperation between the countries of the region and strengthening peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. Among the undoubted achievements of the Forum is the formation of a culture of dialogue in Asia, which is an important contribution to strengthening collective principles in world politics and multilateral approaches to solving international problems.

The unprecedented surge in terrorist activity has forced ASEAN members to take a fresh look at the hierarchy of challenges and threats in the Asia-Pacific region, highlighting the task of jointly fighting terrorism. The issue of establishing cooperation in countering terrorism as an integral part of a promising global counterterrorism system has been put on the regional agenda.

The anti-terrorist issue has become a serious test of the strength of intra-Asean unity. Already the first reaction of the ASEAN states to the events of September 11, 2001 in the United States and the counterterrorism operation in Afghanistan revealed significant differences among ASEAN members, caused both by the difference in political orientation among the members of the "ten", and by the fact that in a number of these states a significant proportion of the Muslim population.

At the cost of considerable effort, the ASEAN members still managed to cover up differences at the Brunei ASEAN Summit (November 2001) by adopting

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joint document on international terrorism, which condemns the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and expresses sympathy and condolences to the people and Government of the United States. Serious measures have been taken to establish anti-terrorist cooperation within the Association: Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have signed an agreement on information exchange in countering terrorism. Cambodia recently joined the agreement. In May 2002, a special meeting of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers was held on the issues of combating terrorism and other types of transnational crime. The same theme prevailed at the Association's Foreign Ministers ' meeting in Brunei in July 2002.

Given the universal and all-encompassing nature of the ARF, as well as the weight of the Islamic factor and the urgency of the problem of religious extremism in the Asia-Pacific region, it is safe to assume that this forum can become an effective regional mechanism for cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

The prospects of the ARF as a possible organizational basis for such cooperation, as well as determining the future direction of the Forum's development, which would meet the current needs of ensuring regional security, were the main topics of the IX session of the ARF at the level of Foreign Ministers held in Brunei on July 31, 2002. During the meeting, the ARF Declaration on Countering the Financing of Terrorism and a set of recommendations for participating countries on anti-terrorist cooperation were approved, and it was decided to launch a mechanism for inter-sessional meetings on combating terrorism and other types of transnational crime. The Ministers approved recommendations for advancing the ARF process, including a commitment to continue developing and implementing preventive diplomacy methods in the practice of interstate relations in the Asia-Pacific region.

In general, recent events dictating the need to join forces in the fight against new challenges against the background of the persistence of potential hotbeds of conflict in the Asia-Pacific region itself, determine a further increase in the political weight and strengthening of the Forum's leading role in ensuring peace and stability in the region.

At the same time, traditional areas of cooperation within the Forum remain equally important. It discusses topical issues of both a global nature - nuclear non-proliferation, strategic stability, nature protection, combating extremism, separatism, organized crime, drug trafficking, overcoming the negative consequences of globalization - and intraregional issues-resolving the situation in the South China Sea, on the Korean Peninsula, smoldering territorial and border disputes.

As far as Korean affairs are concerned, the ARF session held in Brunei in 2002 was very important for improving the situation on the Korean peninsula. In fact, for the first time in the Forum's activities, Korean issues were discussed in a substantive, in-depth, and most importantly-in a constructive manner, by all interested parties,

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including both Korean versions. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov's talks with the leaders of the Republic of Korea and the DPRK in Seoul and Pyongyang a few days before the Brunei summit contributed significantly to this. Thus, the Forum proved its ability to provide an additional convenient framework for multilateral discussion of external aspects and such a specific problem, which seems to stand apart from the Southeast Asian region, as the Korean problem, while, of course, understanding that the internal aspects of the Korean settlement are the subject of negotiations between the two Korean states. The important role of Russia in the work of the ARF in this area is beyond doubt and is positively perceived by all participants of the Forum.

Along with the work of the ARF, the ASEAN States are also actively promoting the work of the Asia - Pacific non-governmental dialogue mechanism on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region, held on the "second track" - the Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation Council (APCC), in which academic circles of the region's countries and officials in their personal capacity, including representatives of Russia, actively participate.

The Association also plays a leading role in the work of various structures of interregional cooperation, including the Asia-Europe Meeting Mechanism (ASEM) and the Forum of East Asian - Latin American States (WAZLAF). At present, Thailand has initiated the launch of a new mechanism for interregional cooperation - the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), which aims to establish links between various sub-regional structures in Asia. A high level of regional cooperation, mainly in the economic sphere, was achieved within the framework of the ASEAN+3 mechanism (the Association's partners here are China, Japan and South Korea), which is rapidly becoming a kind of "locomotive" of East Asian economic integration with a huge market that can compete with both the American and European economic zones.

The launch of these integration associations with the active participation of ASEAN is evidence of new important processes in the vast Asian space. The main vector of these processes - multilateral cooperation with a growing link between security and development tasks-is in tune with our approaches to solving modern problems in the Asia-Pacific region.

IT should be noted that the level of economic integration within the ASEAN framework, against the background of traditionally high rates of intra-Asean political interaction, was the weakest link in the multifaceted cooperation of the Southeast Asian countries. Among the main problems hindering the economic development of the region are the continuing significant gap in the levels of development between ASEAN members, the painful transformation of countries with a traditional way of economy in the context of increasing globalization, the similarity of products produced in individual countries and their orientation.

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The impact of the financial crisis in Asia, insufficient investment flow and uneven distribution in the region are still not fully overcome.

The currency and financial crisis that engulfed Southeast Asia in 1997 had serious negative political and economic consequences for almost all the ASEAN member States (Singapore and Brunei were the least affected), and was a test of the ten's determination to continue the policy of economic integration.

Despite certain discrepancies in the assessment of the causes of the crisis, most representatives of the ruling elite of the Southeast Asian countries, as well as economists and politicians, believe that many crisis phenomena are generated by the specifics of the activities of international financial capital, primarily short-term, seeking to get unreasonably high profits, as well as the impact of negative aspects of the globalization process.

The lessons of the financial crisis of 1997-1999 served as an incentive to develop concepts for countering new challenges to the economic security of the region's countries, primarily at the national and regional levels. As the main reference point for their economic cooperation, the Association countries have adopted a policy of integration and liberalization in the Southeast Asian region based on the ASEAN Free Trade Area Agreement (AFTA), the ASEAN Investment Area Framework Agreement (AIA), and the ASEAN Industrial Cooperation Scheme (AICO).

The creation of AFTA is designed to expand the opportunities of the free market in the region, increase the competitiveness of each country's products in the struggle for markets between different producers, provide its population with more affordable goods and, what is fundamentally important from the point of view of the progressive development of national economies, prepare producers for the conditions of global liberalization within APEC and WTO. It provides for the use of a flexible scheme for reducing tariff rates for a number of product items by adding them to the "list of temporary exceptions", which is a guarantee of not causing damage to the most sensitive links of the zone's participants.

At the seventh ASEAN Summit held in Brunei in November 2001, it was decided to accelerate the transition to a Free Trade Area - the dates of its formation were postponed from 2003 to 2002. Thus, since January 1, 2002, the" six " leading ASEAN countries-Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Brunei - have started forming the AFTA, which provides for the reduction of most tariffs in mutual trade to the level of 0-5%. In addition, an agreement was reached on the application of the ASEAN Integration System of Preferences. According to it, the "old" members of ASEAN (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines) should expand tariff benefits for the" new " members of the Association (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar).

From the perspective of the economic development prospects of the ASEAN countries, the recently concluded agreement on the establishment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is of crucial importance.

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ASEAN - China Free Trade Zones. This will be the world's largest free trade area. At the same time, there is a growing tendency for individual countries to conclude a group of agreements on free trade zones already on a bilateral basis.

The ASEAN Investment Area Framework Agreement (AIA), signed in October 1998, is intended to be a key tool for attracting investment to the sub-region. It lays the foundation for gradually opening up access to the main sectors of the economies of the "ten" countries to both ASEAN and external investors by granting them national treatment, a number of tax incentives, lifting restrictions on the share of foreign capital, etc.

Other initiatives of intra-Asean economic cooperation include the Hanoi Action Plan (HPA) and the Mekong River Development Cooperation Program. In fact, they are mechanisms for implementing the program "ASEAN - Vision 2020: Partnership for Dynamic Development" adopted at the Association Summit in 1997 - the main document that outlined the main political and socio-economic parameters of the Southeast Asian region at the beginning of the XXI century.

The ASEAN Integration Initiative (IAI), launched in 2000, is also focused on fulfilling the commitments of the leaders of the top ten countries within the framework of ASEAN 2020, which implies promoting equal economic development, reducing poverty and economic imbalance in Southeast Asia. It is aimed at overcoming the disproportions in the levels of economic development of the region's states, primarily between the "old" and "new" members of the "ten".

In general, it can be stated that today ASEAN has become an influential center of attraction in the Asia-Pacific region, not only in the political but also in the economic spheres.

The international weight of the ASSOCIATION is largely evidenced by the nature of its relations with States outside the Southeast Asian region.

In the 70s, a system of dialogues of the Association with the leading countries of the world that maintain active political and economic ties with it was born. At various times, such partners of the Association were Australia, Canada, China, India, Russia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Japan and the EU. Such cooperation implies the creation of a certain system of working bodies that allow identifying and developing its promising and mutually beneficial areas. As a rule, joint Cooperation Committees (JCS) are formed as the main bodies of such a mechanism, which oversee the activities of working groups. In turn, the working groups develop cooperation projects and submit them for consideration and approval by the SCS. For the implementation of agreed projects, financial funds are created in one form or another.

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ASEAN's relations with a number of dialogue partners have reached a high level. Since 2000, annual ASEAN - China, ASEAN - Japan, ASEAN - ROK summits have been held, as well as in the "ASEAN+PRC, Japan, ROK"format. In November 2002, the ASEAN - India Summit mechanism was launched. We can assume with a reasonable degree of confidence that the trend of strengthening integration ties along the East Asia - South-East Asia - South Asia line will continue to develop actively. This is an important factor for Russia's policy in Asia, given our principled policy of deep involvement in Asian affairs and integration of the Russian economy, especially its eastern regions, into the new economic architecture of the Asia-Pacific region.

Russia's relations with the Association began in 1991. Then, for the first time, the Russian Foreign Minister was invited to participate in the events accompanying the annual meetings of ASEAN Foreign Ministers as a guest of the Chairman of the Association's Standing Committee (PC). In 1996, Russia sent a letter to the Chairman of the ASEAN PC with an official request to grant it the status of a full-scale dialogue partner of the Association. In the same year, it became one of the ASEAN dialogue Partners.

Since 1997, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has regularly participated in meetings of the ASEAN countries with dialogue partners, which are held annually at the end of July after the meetings of the Association's Foreign Ministers in the framework of Post-Ministerial Conferences (at the ASEAN+10 plenary sessions and individual dialogues with each partner in the "ASEAN+1" format)."). Key issues of the international situation, the Association's interaction with dialogue partners, prospects and main areas of cooperation are discussed during the PMK.

In accordance with the established practice of creating a specific mechanism for cooperation between ASEAN and dialogue partners, Russia, having received the status of a partner, has actively begun to form such a mechanism.

In 1997, the first constituent meeting of the Joint Russia - ASEAN Cooperation Committee (JCC) was held, which became the umbrella body for the entire Russia - ASEAN dialogue. The goals and objectives of the SCS are to coordinate the activities of all the institutions of interaction between the Association and Russia, determine general principles, directions and mechanisms of cooperation, approve specific projects, and monitor the expenditure of funds. The second meeting of the Committee was held in Jakarta in 2000, and the third in Moscow in September 2002.

In 2001, the Joint Planning and Administrative Committee of Russia-ASEAN was launched , which is a more compact body than the SCC, which serves as the Russian-ASEAN Commission.

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"laboratories" for testing new ideas and proposals, as well as concrete interaction projects.

In order to promote the development and intensification of scientific and technological cooperation between Russia and ASEAN, a working group on scientific and technological cooperation was established in 1997. In September 2002, the founding meeting of another working group on trade and economic cooperation was held.

An important element of this type of relationship is the Meeting of Senior Political Officials (SDL) at the level of Deputy Foreign Ministers. Holding regular meetings of the Russia - ASEAN SDL on political issues makes an important contribution to the process of deepening political interaction between the parties, allowing them to" compare notes " on topical regional and global issues. The first SDL meeting was held in Moscow in June 1998, the second in Ho Chi Minh City in October 1999, and the third in Moscow in April 2002.

The ASEAN Moscow Committee (ICA), which unites the ambassadors of the "top ten" countries in Moscow, serves as a kind of consultative body within the framework of the dialogue, which allows for the exchange of information and coordinated activities at the operational level. On a quarterly basis, the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs meets with the ASEAN ambassadors in Moscow on various international policy issues. Regular briefings are also organized to inform the diplomatic missions of the Association countries about Russia's position on current international issues.

In general, it is safe to say that relations with ASEAN have become an independent and important area of our foreign policy, which significantly complements and reinforces our policy of developing bilateral ties with Asian states. Strengthening relations with ASEAN is one of Russia's foreign policy priorities, which was confirmed by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who paid an official visit to Russia in March 2002.

In this regard, the role of multilateral diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole has recently increased significantly. This objective process, reflecting the global trend towards multipolarity and combining the efforts of many "players" at once, undoubtedly meets our vision of the future architecture of international relations, including in Asia. The fact that we consider this process as one of the main directions of international life is evidenced by the decision taken by the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry in June 2001 to create a Department of Pan-Asian Problems within the Ministry, which, along with assessments and forecasts of the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, specifically deals with Russia's participation in Asia-Pacific multilateral organizations and mechanisms.

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A multi-disciplinary partnership with ASEAN, which plays an initiative and largely organizing role in the current integration processes in Asia, is of great practical importance for us both from a political and economic point of view. The Asean philosophy of multilateral cooperation without dividing lines, the Association's firm commitment to the UN Charter, political methods for resolving disputed issues, and the rejection of the use of force fully meet our interests in the Asia-Pacific region. It is important that we share common approaches to combating international terrorism and other types of transnational crime.

This area is a very promising area of cooperation between Russia and ASEAN. Russia's active participation in the ASEAN Regional Security Forum and its support for strengthening the ARF as one of the most important pillars of the new security system in the Asia-Pacific region allow us to effectively defend Russian interests in this region and in the international arena as a whole, and to cooperate on an equal footing with the world's leading states represented here.

Political cooperation between Russia and ASEAN is the most developed area of our relations. Our immediate plans in this direction include the adoption of a joint Russian-ASEAN political document on cooperation in maintaining regional security and combating new challenges. In this regard, it is also planned to introduce meetings of experts on countering terrorism and transnational crime into the practice of regular Russian-ASEAN consultations. We have initiated the process of "building bridges" between the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and ASEAN.

Russia's economic cooperation with ASEAN as an organization is still lagging behind for a number of reasons. Improving this situation, creating a solid economic foundation for Russian-ASEAN partnership relations, and strengthening their contractual and legal foundations is our first practical task. There are considerable opportunities for this. Currently, we are working with the ASEAN members on concluding the first economic cooperation agreement, which would allow our partnership relations to reach a qualitatively new level of practical cooperation in a wide range of promising and mutually beneficial areas.

For Russia, the prospects of economic cooperation with the Southeast Asian countries within the framework of the emerging AFTA and other related sub-regional integration entities are of great interest. Russia has a lot to offer its partners, especially in the field of high technologies. Good opportunities are also opening up in terms of developing relations in the fields of transport, energy, ecology, offshore exploitation, and the development of investment projects.

Even such an incomplete list shows that we have a wide field for ensuring a long-term constructive and mutually beneficial partnership. The prerequisite for this is a match

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or the similarity of the positions of Russia and the ASEAN countries on most pressing regional and international issues, and the mutual interest in deepening and strengthening cooperation.

On a broader political level, our active partnership with ASEAN is a clear reflection of the multi-vector nature of Russia's foreign policy and its deep interests in Asia. Recent international developments, including the consolidation of various States in the fight against terrorism, create unique prerequisites for building a cooperative, multipolar system of regional security and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region based on mutual trust. There are qualitatively new opportunities to combine the efforts of individual states, as well as their bilateral cooperation and the activities of regional associations - such as ASEAN, ARF, APEC, SCO, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence - building Measures in Asia, and the Dialogue on Cooperation in Asia-to create a flexible network of region-wide interaction with equal rights for all, without dividing into two categories. "masters" and "slaves". The goal of such an architecture of relations, which increasingly emphasizes the principle of multilateralism, is common security and the creation of optimal conditions for the prosperity of the region and each State separately. Russia's cooperation with ASEAN is an important foundation block for the new "Asian home" under construction, which should be safe and comfortable for everyone.

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