Foreign Ministers of ASEAN member countries and Russia have agreed to continue promoting cooperation in tourism and exchanges in culture, science and technology as well as host many practical activities to mark the 15 th anniversary of ASEAN-Russia dialogue partnership.

The agreement was reached at the ASEAN - Russia Foreign Ministers’ Meeting under the co-chairmanship of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Myanmar counterpart U Wunna Maung Lwin in Bali, Indonesia on July 22.

The FMs reviewed the two sides’ cooperative outcomes and discussed new, potential fields of cooperation and Russia’s participation in the East Asia Summit, to be held in Indonesia by the end of this year.

They also looked into cooperative measures in the field of security to fight against terrorism and trans-national crime, underlining that the two sides needed to promote cooperation to effectively cope with regional and global challenges, such as food and energy security, and climate change.

The two sides gave high evaluations to the outcomes of their economic and trade cooperation in 2010, pledging to promote the ASEAN – Russia economic, trade and investment cooperation in the future.

The participants to the meeting also reached a consensus on issuing a joint statement of ASEAN – Russia FMs on the occasion of the 15 th anniversary of ASEAN - Russia dialogue partnership./.