MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. Russia views positively the prospects of improving the formats of dialogue in Asia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko told TASS.
"Asian countries are not in a race to create new regional associations. They are actively working to combine the potential of existing formats and improve their efficiency," he said. "In our opinion, this process has good prospects," he pointed out.
According to the senior diplomat, this is confirmed by the expansion of relations between such platforms as the SCO, the EAEU, ASEAN. "They will be followed by the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia and the Dialogue on Cooperation in Asia," Rudenko added.
The diplomat pointed out that last year contacts were established between ASEAN mechanisms and the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation. Russia has been advocating the establishment of such dialogue since 2018. "Russia approaches the issue of establishing additional practical formats of dialogue and cooperation with the states of the region in the most pragmatic and flexible way, taking into account the fact that a number of partners in the Asia-Pacific region have such an interest," the deputy foreign minister said.