During his trip to Brunei Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov will discuss questions of ensuring security in Asia-Pacific region

During his trip to Brunei from July 30th - August 1st Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Igor Ivanov will discuss the questions of ensuring security in the Asia-Pacific region (APR). As RIA Novosti was told in the information and press department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia on Wednesday, a number of events during which the participants will discuss the key international and regional problems and the ways to strengthen confidence among the states of the region will take place in Brunei.

The officials of the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that listed among these meetings is the 9th session of the ASEAN regional forum on security (ARF), as well as the postministerial conference ASEAN + 10 Dialogue Partners and the individual dialogues with each partner in the ASEAN + 1 format. As officials of the Foreign Ministry of Russia said, the meetings are held annually by the Association of Southeast-Asian Nations (ASEAN) with its partners in the dialogue - Russia, China, India, the USA, Japan, the EU and other countries.

As the Russian Foreign Ministry officials noted, the ARF is an interstate structure of regional significance within which a dialogue on the whole complex of questions of ensuring security in the region is held.

A declaration of the ARF on financial measures to counter terrorism and a set of counter-terrorist recommendations to the participants in the forum have been prepared for the Brunei session.

As the Russian Foreign Ministry officials noted, adoption of these documents will make it possible "to take an important step along the road of establishing interaction of the states of the region in the struggle against terrorism, and turning the ARF into an organisational base of cooperation in countering the new threats and challenges to security".

Concrete questions of the ASEAN's relations with the partners in the dialogue will also be submitted for consideration by the participants in the postministerial conferences.

The Russian Foreign Ministry officials noted that the Russian side intended to discuss with the representatives of the Association prospects of stepping up mutually-advantageous economic cooperation.

A number of bilateral meetings between Ivanov and his counterparts from the states participating in the ARF and in the postministerial conferences is also planned.

The events in Brunei must become an important stage in the development of our relations with the ASEAN which we view as a key partner of Russia not only in the APR but also in the whole world, the officials of the Foreign Ministry of Russia stressed.