Russia celebrates National Day with many important guests

Ambassador Aleksandr A. Timonin of the Russian Federation in Seoul said that the Republic of Korea is one of the most important partners of Russia in the Asia-Pacific region and that I would like to point out that, despite complicated political and economic situation in the world, last year was fruitful for the two countries’ relations.

Speaking at a reception he hosted at the Millennium Seoul Hilton in Seoul on June 8, 2016, Ambassador Timonin said, “We successfully marked the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations and held a complex of important joint events thus verifying the high level of our cooperation in various areas.”
Ambassador Timonin specifically pointed out, “The meeting of President of the Russian Federation Vladmir Putin and President of the Republic of Korea Park Geun-hye in 2015 in Paris, contacts of the heads of Foreign Ministries and Chairmen of Parliaments gave further boost to our partnership and defined guidelines for interaction in the forthcoming years.” (See excerpts from his speech at the end of this report.)
The reception was attended by many important guests from the Korean government and society as well as from the Seoul Diplomatic Corps. They included First Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Lim Sung Nam, Deputy Minister of Public Safety and Security Kim Gyungsoo and Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Younggoog.

From the diplomatic community came many ambassadors accompanied by their spouses. They included Ambassadors Natallia Jhylevich of Belarus, Grecia Fiodalicia Pichardo of Dominican Republic, Oscar Gustavo Herrera Gilbert of Ecuador, Hany Moawad Selim Labib of Egypt, Rolf Mafael of Germany, Irineo Raul Silvero Silvagni of Paraguay, Niroshani Manisha Dias Abeywickrema Gunasekera of Sri Lanka, Myrat Mammetalyyev of Turkmenistan, and Botirjon Asadov of Uzbekistan.

Excerpts from the speech of Ambassador Timonin:
It’s a pleasure for me to welcome you all at the reception on the occasion of our national holiday ? Day of Russia. On June 12, 1990 the Declaration of State Sovereignty was adopted in the Russian Federation. Since that time we started to count the new history of Russian democratic state. During past 26 years large-scale reforms in political, economic and social spheres were implemented, and contributed to deep transformations in different areas, to improvement of living standards of our people, to strengthening global positions of Russia.

The Russian Federation is the world power, located at the Eurasian continent and building relations with the West and the East in parallel. In this work we have to take into consideration the objective tendencies of modern global development, which prove that the role of Asia-Pacific region as the “locomotive” of international politics and economy consistently grows. Due to this factor at present the Asian vector of Russian foreign policy is strengthening. Russia consistently stands not only for deepening economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, but as well for creating the structure of multilateral cooperation, which would provide for stability and steady development in this region.
We have a lot to offer to our partners in the Asia-Pacific region for solving energy supply, transportation, science and technology, environmental problems, providing for regional military and political stability, for expansion of cooperation in the fields of emergency response and effective countering international terrorism.
Republic of Korea is one of the most important partners of Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. I would like to point out, that despite complicated political and economic situation in the world, last year was fruitful for our two countries’ relations. We’ve successfully marked the 25th anniversary diplomatic relations, held a complex of important joint events thus verifying the high level of our cooperation in different areas.

The meeting of President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin and President of the Republic of Korea Park Geun-hye in 2015 in Paris, contacts of the heads of Foreign Ministries and Chairmen of Parliaments gave further boost to our partnership and defined guidelines for interaction in the forthcoming years. We consider as a very meaningful the working visit to Russia of Mr. Yun Byung-se, Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, scheduled for June 13. A wide range of issued is planned for discussion during this visit, such as bilateral cooperation agenda as well, as global and regional problems, including the situation on the Korean Peninsula and shaping of peace and security mechanism in the North-East Asia
The Republic of Korea remains our major trade partner. At present our countries actively interact in many spheres, including peaceful space exploration, petrochemistry, infrastructure, car industry, shipbuilding, energy supply, agriculture, culture, science, education and sports. The prospective directions of our economic cooperation with the Republic of Korea are large-scale investment projects in the European part of the Russian Federation as well as the establishment of new production facilities at the Russian Far East taking advantage of preferences for foreign business provided by territories of advanced development and the free port of Vladivostok.
We hope that the forthcoming contacts of representatives of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea during St.Petersburgh International Economic Forum (June 16-18, 2016) and East Economic Forum in Vladivostok (September 2-3, 2016) this year will contribute to further promotion of our economic ties.

The Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea fruitfully interact at the global arena within the framework of the UN and other international organizations. In this connection we are hoping for further joint work on settling vital issues of global agenda, including those, connected to stabilization of the situation in the North East Asia and to the search of the ways to solve the nuclear problem of the Korean peninsula. Unfortunately the missile and nuclear tests, held in the DPRK this year had strained the tension in the region. Though we have condemned Pyongyang for these actions and supported the 2270 Resolution of the UN Security Council, nonetheless we suppose, that one shouldn’t totally close the doors for dialogue with North Korea and immediately reject its proposals, that may be conducive to the improvement of the situation on the peninsula.
In Russia we are confident, that it is possible to solve the nuclear problem of the Korean peninsula only by political and diplomatic means, refraining from excessive concentration of the modern weapons in North East Asia, including deployment of regional segment of US global missile defense system. We are convinced that moving towards peace and security in North East Asia should be reciprocal, and realized with active participation of all countries of the region.