Putin to Vladivostok Forum: Establish a Big Eurasian Partnership

In his keynote address to the second annual Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, which brought together 3,000 participants from 35 nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented what he called “big, ambitious, complex and long-term tasks” to transform Russia’s Far East into a hub of Eurasian development as a whole.

As promised, the EEF had very strong delegations from South Korea and Japan in particular, led by their respective heads of government, Park Geun-hye and Shinzo Abe, each of whom had a bilateral meeting with Putin as well on the sidelines of the EEF.

Putin located Russia’s Far East strategy in the broader plans for global economic development. “We are working consistently to develop the Eurasian Economic Union and expand its international ties,” he said, including “economic cooperation agreement between the EAEU and the People’s Republic of China,” as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. “We believe that this integration network and the system of multilateral and bilateral agreements, including those on free trade zones, could become the foundation for developing a big Eurasian partnership,” he stated.

Putin then proceed to enumerate some of the joint projects that are underway or proposed:

* “First is a reliable energy infrastructure. We support the initiative of Russian, Japanese, South Korean and Chinese companies to create a super energy ring linking our countries.” He guaranteed that Russia would provide its partners with “competitive energy rates and long-term fixed price contracts.”

* “Second is transport infrastructure.

* “Third [is] … the development of digital, telecom and internet technologies.

* “Fourth. We need human resources and technological groundwork for the future. In this regard, we invite partners to join the project to build an international science, education and technology cluster on Russky island.”

Republic of Korea President Park Geun-hye responded favorably to Putin’s approach. “President Vladimir Putin is carrying out a new eastern policy that is injecting new life into the region and developing its potential in a vision that can become reality,” she stated. “If we marry South Korean capital and processing technology to Russian fundamental science and resources, this would enable us to create a competitive industrial base.”