Стр. 12 - V

Author : K. Barsky
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Kingdom of Thai-
land
IN RECENT YEARS, Russia's foreign policy has been swinging
eastward, toward Asia-Pacific, with unprecedented rapidity and
confidence. But nothing would be further from the truth than the
idea that this is a reaction to the Western sanctions.
By the time Primakov became foreign minister, the ideas underly-
ing Kozyrev's foreign policy course had largely got depreciated.
Alas, the good intentions recorded in the 1993 Foreign Policy
Concept of the Russian Federation had failed to stand the test of
time, being smashed against the severe reality of post-confronta-
tion international politics. By the mid-nineties, it had become ob-
vious that Russia needed to seriously revise that concept and its
foreign policy practice.
At the dawn of new Russian statehood, Moscow declared as one
of the central tasks of its diplomacy to build "equitable partnership with leading neighboring
democratic and economically developed countries on the basis of defense of our values and in-
terests through practical interaction rather than rushing from confrontations to Utopias."
IT WOULDN'T BE an exaggeration that Primakov made a huge contribution to Russo-Chinese
relations. During his tenure as foreign minister, Russia and China made a leap in their relations
by becoming strategic partners. In those years, solid legal foundations were laid for Russian-Chi-
nese political interaction.
AS AN INSIGHTFUL ORIENTALIST, Primakov was aware of the role of Japan in the modern
world and believed Russia needed closer ties with that country, relations with which are so im-
portant to us.
As part of Primakov's revision of its Asian policy, Moscow began to pay more attention to its
relations with Japan. Japan was one of the chief and most economically developed members of
the Group of Seven, and it was obviously unnatural that Russia, which attended G7 summits,
had less developed relations with it than with any of the other six nations.
Primakov argued that, by and large, such joint activities would be important not only economi-
cally but also politically and would take the two countries closer to a compromise in their sover-
eignty dispute over the South Kuril Islands.
LARGELY through the efforts of Primakov, dialogue partnership between Russia and the As-
sociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a relationship Primakov attached great impor-
tance to, received an unprecedented boost. Behind this was, firstly, Moscow's conviction that
ASEAN was a key regional organization with a philosophy and interests that were objectively
similar to those of Russia and, secondly, ASEAN's desire for closer cooperation with our coun-
Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
The Eastward Vector of Yevgeny Primakov