MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold many bilateral talks at a ministerial meeting of ASEAN countries, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko told TASS in an interview.
"We see our ASEAN friends’ continued reciprocal interest in developing the interaction with our country, as evidenced by a big number of planned bilateral contacts on the sidelines of ministerial meetings in Laos," the diplomat said.
According to him, the expansion of cooperation with ASEAN is one of priority directions of Russia's foreign policy in Asia. "During the Russia-ASEAN meeting a great deal of attention will be paid to widening practical cooperation with a focus on high-tech knowledge-intensive spheres, digitalization, energy and humanitarian ties," Rudenko stated, "We intend to give a start to a new complex five-year action program for 2026-2030."
Lavrov will participate in the forthcoming ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting on July 26-27 in Vientiane.