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Author : A. Borodavkin
Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation
THE YEAR 2010 has become history. The Asia-
Pacific Region (APR) which stretches from Iran
to Japan and the South Pacific islands used it to
leave the global financial and economic crisis be-
hind; move to dynamic development; acquire
and strengthen new poles of growth and influ-
ence and push forward multisided cooperation.
Much of what was going on there, however,
caused concern: repeated flare-ups of old dis-
agreements and conflicts; the challenges and threats of the last few decades as well as the
still very much obvious gap between the development levels of some of the states and sub-
regions. In other words, very much as before the region scored up impressive achievements
and was still grappling with numerous unresolved problems.
In 2010, Russia demonstrated a lot of foreign policy activity in the region which brought
good results. Russia's diplomacy proceeded from a clear understanding that the future of
Russia depended, to a great extent, on its cooperation with the Asia-Pacific countries and
on an awareness that Russia had no other choice but to become part of the rapidly unfolding
regional integration.
Our cooperation with the countries of the Middle East and South Asia on the anti-terrorist
and anti-drug agenda consolidated; Russia was actively involved in defusing the tension built-
up by the Iranian nuclear program and was working toward its greater transparency and
greater controllability.
In 2010, Russia together with its APR neighbors was engaged in large-scale bilateral eco-
nomic projects. The Skovorodino-Daqing oil pipeline was opened and started bringing Russ-
ian oil to China.
Direct investments of Asian states in Russia's economy have increased and continue to grow.
Russia's cultural and humanitarian contacts in the region became much more varied, the
Year of China in Russia which saw over 200 events being one of the pertinent examples.
On the whole, 2010 was a good year for Russia's foreign policy efforts in Asia; it added
vigor to its Asian policies in line with the assignments President Dmitry Medvedev formu-
lated at the conference on social and economic development of the Far East and strength-
ening Russia's positions in the APR which took place in Khabarovsk on July 2, 2010. The
first practical results can be seen.
These active purposeful and consistent efforts will go on in 2011; they will involve the federal
executive and legislative structures, Federation subjects, the Russian business community,
the public and the expert community.
http://interaffairs.ru
Russia's Eastern Policy: Summing Up and Looking Forward