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Russian PM to attend East Asia Summit in Philippines

On November 12, Dmitry Medvedev will arrive in the Philippines to attend the 12th East Asia Summit

MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will visit the Philippines to attend the East Asia Summit (EAS), Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Wednesday.

"On November 12, Russia’s head of government will arrive in the Philippines to attend the 12th East Asia Summit," Ushakov said, noting that in September 2016 Medvedev held talks with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on the sidelines of the summit in Vientiane, Laos.

The East Asia Summits are held annually since 2005 as high-level discussion of Asia-Pacific Region nations on a wide range of regional and global issues. The ASEAN Plus Three summit (the Association of East Asia Nations and Japan, China and South Korea) put forward a proposal to hold the East Asia Summits, which are held annually and coincide with annual meetings of ASEAN leaders.

The EAS brings together ten members of ASEAN (Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines), Australia, India, China, South Korea, New Zealand, and Japan. Russia and the United States joined the summits in 2001.

The EAS’ 18 member states account for 50% of the world’s population and for 55% of global GPD.

Among issues on the East Asia Summits agenda are security in the Asia-Pacific region, cooperation in energy and trade, climate change and discussion on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (a proposed free trade agreement).

In 2011, the summit tackled territorial disputes in the South China Sea among China, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei.

On 8 September 2016, Vientiane, the capital and largest city of Laos, hosted the EAS. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended it from Russia.