Putin and leaders of Southeast Asia agree to bolster ties at a summit in Russia

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

Updated 6:37 AM CDT, June 18, 2026

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hailed Russia’s ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as he hosted a summit intended to strengthen economic and political ties with the bloc.

The leaders who took part in the meeting in Kazan agreed to further expand “strategic partnership” between Russia and ASEAN nations that include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam.

“It is a strategic partnership that serves as an essential stabilizing factor in the Asia-Pacific amidst geopolitical turbulence, contributing to the formation of a balanced security architecture and equitable mutually beneficial cooperation,” Putin said at the summit, which marked the 35th anniversary of Russia-ASEAN relations.

The summit’s agenda included exchanging views on global and regional issues, reviewing efforts to develop Russia-ASEAN ties and discussing areas and tasks for future cooperation.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-asean-summit-kazan-591ec0a864ccbae794a619369b8477a3

[littlemissmartypants]

1. They must either be desperate or blackmailed in order to align with a failure like Putin.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Oil below world market prices is the only thing I can think could attract a country to Putin

unless he's bribing them personally. They know he's a psychopath; they know he does not run a good economy. If he cares so little for the lives of his own people, he's not going to care about another country.

[SamuelAdams]

2. Defeating the Trans-Pacific Partnership pushed some of these countries closer to Russia and China.

[somsai]

4. Asean includes countries with very different perspectives and motivations.

They are mildly interested in trade, most all of them trade with China primarily and export to the USA. Russian oil is about to go under embargo again if it isn't already. The four larger countries all have refineries as Russia no longer exports refined petroleum products due to it's own shortages.

Interestingly Laos gave Russia two elephants at the meeting, or maybe just announced that they had. The meeting was in Kazan about 500 miles E of Russia. I'm hoping one of the elephants is white. Putin in the morning, this morning, seemed unaware that Moscow had just absorbed a significant drone attack.