The 6th Meeting of the ASEAN-Russia Joint Planning and Management Committee (ARJPMC) and the 7th Meeting of the ASEAN-Russia Joint Cooperation Committee (ARJCC) was held in the Smolny Palace, Saint-Petersburg, the Russian Federation on 9 October 2008 and was attended by representatives from the Russian Federation, ASEAN Member States, and the ASEAN Secretariat. The Meeting was co-chaired by H.E. Mr. Bakhtier M. Khakimov, Director-General, Department of Asia Pacific Regional Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Russian Federation and H.E. Ms. Belen F. Anota, Ambassador, Department of Foreign Affairs, the Republic of the Philippines.

To realize the Roadmap on the Implementation of the Comprehensive Program of Action to Promote Cooperation between ASEAN and the Russian Federation, 2005-2015, adopted during the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference Session with the Russian Federation, which was held last 23 July 2008 in Singapore, the Meeting focused discussions on the progress achieved in the priority areas like culture, tourism, energy, disaster management, counter-terrorism, science and technology, identified under the Comprehensive Program of Action to Promote Cooperation.

The Meeting welcomed the decision of the Government of the Russian Federation to make the second contribution of USD500000 to the ASEAN-Russia Dialogue Partnership Financial Fund as an attestation of Russia’s firm desire to further enhance Dialogue Partnership Relations with ASEAN. The Meeting praised the decision of the Government of the Russian Federation to allocate contributions to the DPFF on an annual basis.

The Meeting reviewed the situation with regard to the six priority joint cooperation projects endorsed earlier by the 6th ARJCC Meeting held in Cebu, Philippines, in December 2007. It was stated that three projects, namely “Experience of usage by ASEAN members’ small and medium enterprises of electronic commerce national systems: analysis of the possibilities for the growth and increase of their competitiveness”, “Cooperation in scientific and methodological spheres of the Foreign Language for Business and Professional Communication in ASEAN Member Countries. Part 1”, and “Workshop on Renewable Energy for CLMV” are ready for implementation and will take shape as soon as all the financial and other formalities are completed. The other three projects: “Establishment of an ASEAN Centre in MGIMO University”, “Establishment of ASEAN-Russia Business Website”, and “Russian Language Course for ASEAN Tour Operators” are in various stages of preparation and will be expedited.

The Meeting expressed the readiness of ASEAN and Russia to review and consider new project proposals under the DPFF. Among them, the Meeting endorsed the project “ASEAN-Russia Workshop on Vaccines” and decided that it will be implemented in November 2008. The Meeting also supported the project proposal “Workshop on Biotechnology in Food Industry” as well as two project proposals dealing with emergency management and response and encouraged their respective Proponents to submit it to the ARJCC for consideration.

The Meeting agreed that the Guidelines for Selecting, Approving, Financing and Reporting on Joint ASEAN – Russian Federation Activities and Programmes of Cooperation be adopted ad referendum.

The next meeting of the ASEAN-Russia Joint Cooperation Committee will be held in the Philippines in May 2009.