Andrew Kuchins: Russia wants to have a voice in Asia

Foreign opinion

This September Russia hosted the APEC summit in Vladivostok, building upon the success of USA’s APEC presidency of 2011. In this special interview for the RIAC Andrew Kuchins (Center for Strategic and International Studies) analyses Russia’s achievements and challenges it faced during its APEC presidency. He talks about the obstacles that Russia faces ahead with its policy in Asia and the future role of APEC in the region.

Foreign opinion

This September Russia hosted the APEC summit in Vladivostok, building upon the success of USA’s APEC presidency of 2011. In this special interview for the RIAC Andrew Kuchins (Center for Strategic and International Studies) analyses Russia’s achievements and challenges it faced during its APEC presidency. He talks about the obstacles that Russia faces ahead with its policy in Asia and the future role of APEC in the region.

Interviewee: Andrew Kuchins, Director of the Russia and Eurasia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Interviewer: Maria Prosviryakova, Russian International Affairs Council

Photo: Andrew Kuchins, Director of the
Russia and Eurasia Program, Center for Strategic
and International Studies

The USA hosted APEC summit in 2011. What did the APEC presidency give the USA?

It is a natural responsibility for APEC members to host the meeting in sequence. The U.S. presidency was successful and there was a progress made in a number of different areas. It expressed the administration’s commitment to multilateral institutions in Asia. As well, it showed the importance of the APEC as an economically oriented multilateral institution to the United States.

What did Russia manage to achieve by hosting the 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit? What is the key achievement of Russia's APEC- 2012 presidency?

I think that the key achievement for Russia was that it was a successful meeting. This was the first time that Russia hosted an APEC meeting. Therefore it was important for the Russian Federation to host a successful meeting in its efforts to express its interest in and support for multilateral institutions in Asia.

It was a risky and bold decision on the part of the Russian government to hold the meeting in Vladivostok. That required tremendous investment in infrastructure development, so that city could host it. But it came off well. Russia effectively asserted its interest in being an Asian power and in the development of the multilateral institutions in Asia. It is especially important now because the multilateral and institutional structure of Asia is in flux. Since Russia hasn’t so much regarded itself as an Asian power in recent years and even decades. It has been regarded probably even less as an Asian power by Asian countries: more as a European country.

This is especially important as Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has made it clear that one of his goals for this current term is to more deeply integrate Russia into Asia.

What were the major challenges that Russia had to overcome in fulfilling its APEC-2012' presidency promises?

One of them was of a logistical nature: being able to have the adequate accommodation, transportation, infrastructure to host a meeting of this magnitude in Vladivostok. The investment in the development of Russky Island, the bridge to Russky Island, the major investment in the modernization of Vladivostok international airport, investment in high road infrastructure in and around Vladivostok – all of this was essential for a successful meeting.

The substantive part of the meeting probably in ways was the less difficult. But if you look at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Administration there is relatively less expertise and experience on Asia than in Europe or the United States There is much more expertise in Russia on European affairs, ties with the United States and some other issues. It was quite important as well to be able to allocate and develop the cadre raise to successfully engage in the issues on the agenda. I think it turned out to be successful on both fronts.

How do the results of Russia's APEC presidency fit into Russia's Asia policy?

Russia wants to have a voice in the development of the multilateral institutional framework in Asia. It wants to play a significant role in APEC and chairing this meeting was important in that regard. The same applies to Russia’s engagement with the East Asia Summit and with other Asian multilateral institutions. It is also important for the socio-economic development of Russia’s Far East and Easter Siberia and the so-called “Asian regions of Russia”, which are very rich in natural resources but require tremendous investment. This will be key for Russia’s increasing economic integration into Asia. The integration has already been happening. For example, about 10% of Japan’s import of gas and oil are coming from the Russian Federation. This is a very significant achievement in the course of the last 10 years.

What obstacles may Russia face in its Asia policy?

The biggest obstacle for Russia will be to convince investors – Russian, Asian, other international - that this is the investment environment that you can be confident in. Because the magnitude of levels of investments that can be required for oil, gas and other natural resources development, infrastructure development around those areas are huge. It is about one of the largest capital expenditure projects in history. These investments will be paid off not in 1-2 years, but in 5-10 or 20 years, that is why it is really important to convince the international investment community that Russia is a relatively safe bet.

Another issue is corruption, which is at the heart of the investment environment. It has been acknowledge many times by President Putin, by former President Medvedev.

Amidst other regional organizations and new initiatives such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) what will ensure that APEC continues to play a vital role in the region?

Like any multilateral institution APEC has to be able to demonstrate that it can deliver goods; that it can add value for the members that participate in it and for the leaders of those countries that have to make decision about how they allocate their time and the resources of their government.

I think the membership should expand so that it corresponds to the membership of some of the other Asian multilateral institutions.

There is probably going to be one Asian multilateral summit meeting which is going to attract the heads of state of the leading countries in Asia. APEC has been able to do that in the past and recent years. Will it be able to continue to do that? It will depend upon the assessments of the leadership of the countries about how significant and important APEC is.

There is going to be competition for being number one multilateral summit meeting. The East Asia Summit in particular will be a multilateral institution that will compete for the attention of the top leadership of each country to attend. But time will tell what it is going to come down to.

Mr. Kuchins, thank you so much for this interview.

It is my pleasure.