What's On the Agenda for Lavrov, Kerry and ASEAN Officials in Laos

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with his counterparts from China, New Zealand, Myanmar, Canada and Brunei in Vientiane. These bilateral talks, however, are just part of Lavrov's busy schedule during 2016 ASEAN events in the capital of Laos.

In May this year, the southern Russian city of Sochi looked even more exotic than usual. It was the 20^th anniversary of Russia-ASEAN partnership and the subtropical part of the country was picked to host the event for the first time. Now, just a couple of months later, Russia and ASEAN have resumed talks in Laos. In Sochi ASEAN leaders and their Russian colleagues agreed on concrete measures to boost their cooperation. A declaration was signed, which included a detailed four-year action plan. Meetings in Vientiane are meant to help implement the plan.

Being the most powerful and influential intergovernmental alliance in the Asia Pacific region, ASEAN has various cooperation formats. EAS, or East Asia Summit is one of them. So, besides Russia-ASEAN events and bilateral meetings, the EAS ministerial talks, which are also being held in Laos, gave Russia one more chance to speak to its partners that are also members of the Summit, among them the US, Canada, New Zealand and the EU.  

Russian FM Lavrov is in Vientiane,Laos, for a series of bilateral meetings+joint Russia-#ASEAN ministerial session. pic.twitter.com/gf0UUZLeHT

— Denis Bolotsky (@BolotskySputnik) July 25, 2016

​It's expected that on Tuesday Sergey Lavrov will meet with his US counterpart John Kerry. Their previous talks in the Russian capital on July 15^th concluded with the sides agreeing on specific steps to end fighting in Syria. So it's likely, that Syria will be on the agenda here in Vientiane as well.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members are Cambodia, Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In 2016 Laos holds the chairmanship in the Association.