JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia draws closer to Southeast Asia with arms and energy trade; Putin to attend regional summit to build on economic and political cooperation” – Nikkei Asian Review (Japan)/JUN SUZUKI, TOMOYO OGAWA
“… Putin will for the first time attend the East Asia Summit, to be held in Singapore …. Putin aims to boost arms and energy trade with the region … [and is] seeking new partners to help offset the pressure of Western sanctions over its annexation of Crimea. … Putin will … attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders’ summit … [and] have bilateral meetings with the leaders of Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Russia has participated in the EAS since 2011, but the country has previously sent … Medvedev and … Lavrov. … Putin will again call for cooperation between the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, core members of which are Russia and China, and ASEAN. … President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines’ strongman leader has called Putin ‘my favorite hero.’ And to the authoritarian regimes of countries such as Cambodia, Russia appears a more attractive partner than the U.S. or European countries that stress the importance of human rights and democracy.”
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