Formation of broad economic space to central topic at Russian-ASEAN summit - Lavrov

BEIJING, April 28. /TASS/. Forming a broad economic space will be a central topic at the Russia-ASEAN summit to be held in Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi in May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday at a ministerial meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). "The logic of indivisibility is applicable not only to the sphere of security but also to the global economic space," he said. "This is the philosophy participants in the Eurasian project are being guided by, unlike supporters of ‘closed’ integration alliances. We never set the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in opposition to other integration formats. We are ready to work on their harmonization. Joint movement towards ‘integration of integrations,’ harmonization of large-scale national and trans-border projects will open wide mutually beneficial prospects." "In this context, I would like to note the Russian-Chinese agreements on harmonization of the Eurasian integration and the Silk Road Economic Belt concept, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative on the formation of a broad economic partnership between the Eurasian Economic Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)," the Russian foreign minister said. "In less than a month, we will host a Russia-ASEAN summit in Sochi where this topic will be among the central ones to the agenda," he added. Read more