The Russian Federation became a full Dialogue Partner of ASEAN in July 1996. Prior to this, the Russian Federation began attending the AMM/PMC as a consultative partner in 1991 and has been a a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum since 1994.

In August 1996, the ASEAN Secretariat referred to the ASEAN-Chamber of Commerce and Industry the proposal of the Russian Federation to establish relations at the level of the private sector. The matter of establishing an ASEAN-Russian Joint Business Council is now being considered by the ASEAN-CCI. The ASEAN-CCI invited Russian businessmen to the First ASEAN Business Summit held in March 1997 in Jakarta.

The inaugural meeting of the ASEAN-Russia Joint Cooperation Committee was held in Moscow in June 1997. The JCC agreed that four institutions would constitute the structure of the ASEAN-Russian Dialogue, namely, the ASEAN-Russia JCC; the ASEAN-Russia Joint Management Committee of the ASEAN-Russia Cooperation Fund, ASEAN-Russia Business Council and the ASEAN Commitee in Moscow. The JCC has agreed on the following areas of cooperation: trade and investment, science and technology, environment, tourism, human resources development and people-to-people interaction.

An ASEAN-Russia Working Group on Science and Technology has also been established. It held its first meeting in Moscow in June 1997. The Working Group has identified the following as its initial priority areas for cooperation: biotechnology, new materials, information technology, microelectronics, and meteorology and geophysics.