ASEAN Centre in MGIMO-University the MFA of Russia

Центр АСЕАН при МГИМО

Meeting of the ASEAN Centre’s Executive Board

Meeting of the ASEAN Centre’s Executive Board

15.02.2023

The 20th Meeting of the ASEAN Centre Executive Board was held on February 15, 2023. Among the participants of the meeting were H.E. Jose Antonio Morato Tavares, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the Russian Federation Co-Chair of the Board, H.E. Pg.Husaini Alauddin, Ambassador of Brunei Darussalam to the Russian Federation, H.E. Igor Bailen, Ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines to the Russian Federation, along with a number of diplomats from other ASEAN embassies.

The Russian part of the Executive Board was represented by MGIMO Vice-Rector for Science and Research Dr. Andrey Baykov, Co-Chair of the Board, Mr. Andrey Lyamin, Deputy Director of Asian and Pacific Cooperation Department, the MFA of Russia, Appointed Ambassador of Russia to ASEAN Mr. Evgeniy Zagainov, as well as MGIMO professor Dr. Nikolai Maletin, and the ASEAN Centre’s staff.

Dr. Andrey Baykov welcomed the members of the ASEAN Centre’s Executive Board. In his opening remarks, he noted that over the past three-year reporting period, the Centre continued to fulfill its mission despite international political and economic turbulence and the post-pandemic recovery. The Centre organized numerous academic, social and cultural events in order to expand the knowledge of Russia and ASEAN citizens about each other. The Vice-Rector highly appreciated the outcomes of the Centre's work and its role in the development of the Dialogue Partnership between Russia and ASEAN. He also announced a brand new MGIMO Masters degree program "Political Economy of ASEAN-Russia Strategic Partnership", designed specifically for ASEAN and Russian citizens willing to develop ASEAN-Russia relations further.

The meeting’s agenda covered the three-year reporting period of the ASEAN Centre's activities, including such documents as the report on the activities of the ASEAN Center for period 2020-2022, Centre’s financial report for 2020-2022 and Centre's matrix of implementation of its work program for 2022. Public presentations on the abovementioned documents were made by the Director of the ASEAN Centre Dr. Ekaterina Koldunova, Deputy Director Ms. Ekaterina Tronevskaya as well as Centre’s experts Dr. Valeria Vershinina and Dr. Nikita Kuklin. The meeting participants also got detailed information about the aforementioned Masters program, which implies equal opportunities for the ASEAN countries and Russia to select potential students within the specified quotas.

During the discussions, the ASEAN partners complemented the Centre on its three-year term activities and made some recommendations and proposals for its future work.

Indonesian Ambassador to Moscow H.E. Jose Antonio Morato Tavares, as Co-Chair this year, noted that the Centre had done significant work in all areas of activity during the reporting period and highly appreciated the analytical and research activity of the Centre's experts.

In turn, Philippine Ambassador H.E. Igor Bailen thanked the Centre for its attention to anniversaries and important events in the life of ASEAN, including the Centre’s events dedicated to the Philippine Studies and Philippine History.

The representative of the Vietnamese side, the third secretary of the Embassy Mr. Nguyen Viet Linh, on behalf of the Ambassador of Vietnam to Russia, H.E. Dang Minh Khoi, thanked the ASEAN Centre for the work done during the reporting period.

As the meeting came to a close, the sides agreed to submit the reviewed documents for the final approval to the Russia-ASEAN Joint Cooperation Committee to be convened soon in Jakarta.