Russia to build advanced economic relations with SCO, ASEAN - Medvedev

MOSCOW, January 13. /TASS/. Moscow will build advanced economic ties with the leading countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and will be guided by the WTO rules, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said. Last year, Russia’s non-energy exports grew, Medvedev told the Gaidar Economic Forum, stressing that to support this trend Russia needs to fulfil the potential of the Eurasian Economic Union (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan). "We need to agree on the free trade zones with the leading foreign economic contractors on forming the advanced economic partnership as part of the SCO and the ASEAN countries," Medvedev said. The work in this direction will be based on the universal rules of the World Trade Organization, he said. "Of course, we will not create closed clubs with their own rules of game that do not take into consideration the interests of other participants of the global economy and trade," he said. The SCO comprises Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. ASEAN unites 10 Southeast Asian countries: Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Read more