ASEAN Secretariat, 13 September 2008

Russia has contributed another US$ 500,000.00 to the ASEAN-Russian Federation Dialogue Partnership Financial Fund (DPFF), bringing the total amount of funds it has contributed to the DPFF to US$1 million.  The DPFF was set up by the Government of the Russian Federation to facilitate cooperation between ASEAN and the Russian Federation in the areas of science and technology, trade, culture, education, energy and others.
 
Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, welcomed Russia's interest to further enhance relations with ASEAN. He said the joint activities to be conducted under the DPFF will "help to promote better relations and mutual understanding between ASEAN and Russia in a broad range of areas and increase people-to-people contacts".
 
The DPFF was set up in accordance to an Agreement on Economic and Development Cooperation that was signed between the Governments of ASEAN and the Government of the Russian Federation in Kuala Lumpur on 10 December 2005.  A Roadmap on the Implementation of the Comprehensive Programme of Action to promote cooperation between ASEAN and Russia (2005-2015) was adopted at the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences +1 Session with the Russian Federation on 23 July 2008 in Singapore.