Russian foreign minister arrives in Jakarta to attend ASEAN events

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Indonesia's capital Jakarta on Wednesday to attend Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) events.

According to a Foreign Ministry statement, Lavrov is expected to stay in the Indonesian capital from July 12 to 14.

The top Russian diplomat will attend foreign ministerial meetings in the formats of Russia-ASEAN, the East Asia Summit (EAS), and the ASEAN Regional Security Forum.

Prior to the main events on Thursday, Lavrov held a number of bilateral and trilateral meetings, including one with the host country's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, on Wednesday.

Later, Lavrov had a trilateral meeting with Marsudi and Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi.

Russian media reported that Laos Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith spoke with Lavrov in Russian at the opening of the bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the events.

Lavrov also met with Kao Kim Hourn, the current Secretary-General of ASEAN, to whom he presented a giant matryoshka, a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another, with his image.

"This is a symbol of our cooperation," Lavrov told Hourn.

On July 13, Lavrov will attend the Russia-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting, which will discuss its agenda issues of strengthening cooperation in the political, trade, economic, social, and cultural spheres.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, special emphasis will be placed on ensuring food and energy security.