5 April 2021
April 5th, within the framework of the academic and educational program "ASEAN Academic Days 2021 at MGIMO", an online meeting was held with the Ambassador of Brunei to Russia, Haini Hashim, who gave a talk on the "Priorities of the Brunei Presidency of ASEAN in 2021".
The meeting has for participants the Director (2010–2021) of MGIMO’s ASEAN Centre V.Sumsky and the Professor of the Department of Oriental Studies L.Efimova. The meeting was moderated by E.Koldunova, Associate Professor of the Department of Oriental Studies, Leading Expert of the ASEAN Centre. The event was also attended by students learning languages of Southeast Asia and specialised in international relations in Asia, and representatives of Southeast Asian universities.
The Ambassador began his speech by noting that Brunei's chairmanship of ASEAN this year coincides with three important dates: the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Brunei, the 30th anniversary of relations between Russia and ASEAN and the 25th anniversary of the dialogue partnership between Russia and the Association. The chairmanship will be held under the slogan “We Care, We Prepare, We Prosper”. The Ambassador highlighted some of the priorities of the chairmanship, including the development of health diplomacy, the strengthening of multilateral cooperation, the "blue economy" and joint efforts to overcome the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brunei will pursue the implementation of the goals of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, as well as promote the principles of multilateralism. Brunei plans to focus this year on youth policy and raising awareness among ASEAN civil servants about the work of the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.
The meeting was followed by a discussion during which Ambassador Haini Hashim answered questions raised by the organizers on the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the measures to overcome them, the rivalry of major powers in the region and Brunei's perspective on the future prospects of ASEAN.
The next event to take place within the framework of ASEAN Academic Days 2021 at MGIMO will be dedicated to the use of information phantoms and the example of the Vietnamese media space. The Director of the Ho Chi Minh Institute of St. Petersburg State University, Professor V.Kolotov will speak on this subject on April 19 at 10:30 (Moscow time). The event will be held in Russian and registration is open on the ASEAN Center website and on its Facebook page.
