It is my great pleasure to be invited today and to be given an opportunity to address you on the occasion of a seminar jointly organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of the World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO). I am not flattering anyone when I state that these two famous institutions represent what may be the sharpest minds of two nations and always tend to be at the research edge in their never-ending academic quest.

The theme of the seminar, “ASEAN Relations with Russia”, covers a wide range of topics to be discussed and proves a great deal of mutual interest existing both in my home country and within the region of Southeast Asia — home base for ASEAN members. I shall talk briefly from the Russian angle and try to define why Russia is interested in deepening its relations with ASEAN and why the association might be interested in Russia as well.

In the era of increasing globalization and technical innovation, what lies beneath our mutual interest in each other? It is not only geographical factor that two-thirds of Russia's territory belongs to the Asian region making it the biggest Euro-Asian country in the world. As the case of Singapore proves, size matters, but it is not crucial to success. It is not a matter of rich variety of natural resources — Singapore again sets up an excellent example that even without a drop of its own oil it is possible to become one of the biggest oil refiners globally.

We are living in a constantly and rapidly changing environment to which we have to adapt flexibly in order to survive and prosper. In this small and highly interdependent world we face the same challenges and depend on each other more and more. I am not saying that we are similar; we have a lot of differences — historical, political, and cultural.