MANILA, Philippines – The 10-member regional bloc Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin for a high-profile commemorative summit in the Russian city of Kazan this June, the Philippines’ top foreign affairs official confirmed Friday.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro announced via a post on X that she held a phone discussion with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov focused on logistics and agenda for the upcoming gathering, scheduled to take place from June 17 to 18. The Russian Embassy in Manila later issued a statement confirming the call, noting that the two top diplomats also explored pathways to deepen and expand Russia’s existing strategic partnership with the 10-nation bloc.
The Philippines currently holds ASEAN’s 2025 rotating annual presidency, and a senior Philippine government official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking publicly about the summit, confirmed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will be among the regional leaders in attendance.
As an established ASEAN dialogue partner, Russia has held regular annual top-level engagement with the bloc for years, even amid widespread international criticism of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The regional bloc’s relationship with Russia reflects its internal diversity: a majority of ASEAN member states backed a 2022 United Nations General Assembly resolution that condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the bloc has deliberately maintained open diplomatic and economic ties with Moscow. Singapore, for example, officially condemned the invasion and imposed unilateral sanctions on Russia, leaving it unclear whether the city-state’s leader will attend the June summit. Vietnam and Laos, by contrast, abstained from the 2022 UN resolution, and maintain close economic and security cooperation with Russia.
In recent months, multiple ASEAN members including the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam have turned to Russian crude oil imports or expressed interest in purchasing Russian fuel, a shift that followed sharp global price spikes after a U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran in February.
One major attendance question centers on Myanmar, the country currently tasked with coordinating ASEAN-Russia relations. ASEAN moved to bar top Myanmar military leaders from all its high-level regional and international summits in 2021, after the army seized power in a coup that ousted the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The coup triggered an ongoing civil conflict, and the bloc’s 2021 five-point peace plan – which demanded an immediate end to violence and a return to dialogue – has yet to be implemented by Myanmar’s ruling junta. Only low-level career diplomats from Myanmar will be permitted to attend the Kazan summit, consistent with ASEAN’s existing policy.
The planned summit comes at a time of shifting global geopolitics, as Russia seeks to strengthen its diplomatic and economic foothold in the Indo-Pacific region amid prolonged tensions with Western powers over the war in Ukraine.