MOSCOW, January 13. /TASS/. Russia wants to continue strengthening strategic rapprochement with Myanmar, the press service of the Roscongress Foundation said.
"Myanmar is Russia’s long-time and reliable partner in Southeast Asia. The meeting between the countries’ leaders at the Eastern Economic Forum in 2022 gave a strong impetus to the development of bilateral relations. We are building an open dialogue not only at the official but also at the business level, with major attention being paid to developing social and humanitarian ties, which also promote cooperation between our countries. <…> The key task now is to maintain and intensify efforts toward strategic rapprochement between Russia and Myanmar," it quoted Anton Kobyakov, a Russian presidential adviser and executive secretary of the Eastern Economic Forum’s organizing committee, as saying.
As a token of friendship, Myanmar presented Russia with six elephants that will star in Moscow’s Great Circus. Authorities in Russia’s Kaluga Region provided assistance in facilitating the transfer of the elephants and set up a cultural center dedicated to Myanmar in one of the major parks in the region, Etnomir. What’s more, a safari park featuring elephants will be built in 2027.
"Russia is set to strengthen and develop international cooperation. And we are open to investors. For instance, 18 new companies with foreign capital worth 20 billion rubles (nearly $194.6 million) were granted resident status at the Priority Development Areas and the Free Port of Vladivostok in 2024. Mechanisms of an International Priority Development Area, a new preferential regime which is being looked at now, will give additional opportunities to investors. We will discuss these and other formats of mutually beneficial joint work at the next Eastern Economic Forum," said Russian Deputy Prime Minister and presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev.
The potential transfer of elephants was first discussed by Kobyakov and Myanmar's Prime Minister Min Aung Hlaing on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in 2022.
The Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), one of the largest international conferences in Russia. Its objectives and goals include promoting the accelerated growth of Russia’s Far East region and expanding international cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region. The tenth such forum will be held in Vladivostok from September 3 through 6, 2025.