Jakarta. ASEAN wants its annual two-way goods trade with Russia to exceed the $17 billion mark as both sides enter high-level talks in Kazan.

Southeast Asian leaders alongside ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn are in Kazan to commemorate three decades of Russia being the bloc's dialogue partner. The gathering started with a business conference where Kao wooed Russian entrepreneurs with ASEAN’s immense economic potential, saying that the region’s combined gross domestic product (GDP) is the fifth-largest in the world. 

“[ASEAN-Russia] two-way merchandise trade reached $17.8 billion in 2025. It is a figure that, in my view, set against the size and potential of both economies, is still very much modest,” Kao told the conference, as seen in a transcript published by the secretariat.

“Which means there is still a lot of opportunity and potential for growth and cooperation.”

Kao talked of ASEAN’s strong appetite for food security cooperation with the world’s breadbasket. Russia’s strengths in fertilizer supply and agricultural production are “well matched” to the 11-member club's growing agro-industrial sector, according to Kao.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, too, wants economic ties to go beyond current trends. To Anwar, ASEAN is on a good footing by finalizing a roadmap that lays out how it plans to expand its investment and trade with Moscow. However, frameworks are “not enough” and must be followed by enabling policies and trade barrier removals. His speech also put emphasis on making sure that a “rules-based international trading system” is in place. 

“While resilience and economic security have become legitimate priorities, we must continue to express our strong reservations to attempts to erode openness and connectivity,” Anwar said.

Official government statistics showed Indonesia’s trade with Russia came in at $4.8 billion throughout 2025. Indonesia registered a nearly $1.1 billion deficit that year.

State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi had told the press that day that President Prabowo Subianto would be skipping the Kazan summit as the leader chose to focus on “domestic affairs”. His foreign minister Sugiono will join the talks in his stead. 

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