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East Asia Summit to address economy, post-pandemic recovery

The East Asia Summit is a strategic dialogue forum for Asia-Pacific leaders founded in 2005 to develop cooperation between ASEAN and its dialogue partners

SINGAPORE, October 27. /TASS/. Economic cooperation and post-pandemic recovery will be discussed by participants of the East Asia Summit, to begin on Wednesday under Brunei’s presidency.

For the second consecutive year, the summit will be held in the format of a video conference.

"The main theme of the meetings, held under the slogan ‘We care, we prepare, we prosper,’ will be sustainability [on the way] to regional recovery from the novel coronavirus pandemic," the Foreign Ministry of Brunei said in a statement.

"The sides will discuss using new opportunities for universal prosperity, maintaining cooperation in order to achieve long-term goals in the region," the statement says.

Russia’s participation

Russian President Vladimir Putin will make an address via a video linkup, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"The president is preparing to take part in a session of the East Asia summit via a videoconference and in a session of the fourth Russia-ASEAN summit that will be held on October 27 and 28, correspondingly, that is, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow," the Kremlin spokesman said.

When asked by TASS about the issues that President Putin was planning to raise in his speeches, the Kremlin spokesman pointed out that with regard to the East Asia summit "this relates to the economic development of the Asia-Pacific region, the pandemic, the work with the consequences of the pandemic, the development of economic interaction, tourist and other ties in the region."

"Our interaction has decelerated over the past two years due to the pandemic but we need to look jointly for expanding our cooperation," Peskov stressed.

In Peskov’s estimate, there is "substantial potential" for this "and, most importantly, both the association’s countries and Russia are extremely interested in expanding this interaction."

US return

This year, US President Joe Biden will also take part in the event. The last time a US president participated in an ASEAN meeting was in Manila in 2017. After that, Donald Trump’s administration lowered the level of its participation in Southeast Asia’s regional events.

White House spokespersons earlier said Biden was set to reaffirm the inalterability of the US stance about ASEAN’s central role in regional affairs, and to discuss new initiatives about boosting strategic cooperation with the organization.

About the summit

The East Asia Summit is a strategic dialogue forum for Asia-Pacific leaders founded in 2005 to develop cooperation between ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its dialogue partners (Russia, the US, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand). The East Asia Summit is chaired by the ASEAN chair.