Russia's Main Foreign Policy Results of 2023

The Soviet emblem endures on the MFA’s building complex.

As was promised, Russia’s MFA has published what it declares to be its main policy results for 2023. A major course correction was issued in March with the adoption of Russia’s new foreign policy concept and as you’ll see is considered the most important result. There are 20 points overall in what is presumed to be a hierarchical ordering:

Last year, the Russian diplomatic service implemented the foreign policy course determined by President Vladimir Putin in the realities of the aggravated confrontation with the "collective West." The main tasks were political and diplomatic support for the special military operation and the expansion of cooperation with the countries and associations of the World Majority.

1. An important result was the renewal of the doctrinal basis of foreign policy: on March 31, the President of Russia approved a new version of the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation. The document, in particular, formulates a commitment to promoting the formation of a more just and sustainable world order based on the principles of international law and cooperation between states.

2. Russia has qualitatively stepped up its efforts to develop relations with the countries of the near abroad, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

High-level multilateral events at the UN, BRICS, the G20, the APEC forum and the East Asia Summits have confirmed the broad interest of this group of states in pursuing an independent foreign policy and their readiness to take Russia's interests into account.

3. Integration cooperation with Belarus has advanced significantly. The development of an interstate treaty on security guarantees and the security concept of the Union State has been launched. The Main Directions for the Implementation of the Provisions of the Treaty on the Establishment of the Union State for 2024-2026 were agreed. The intergovernmental agreement on the mutual recognition of visas was ratified. A major joint achievement was the commissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

4. In the context of geopolitical turbulence, integration associations with the participation of Russia in Eurasia have successfully passed the stress resistance test.

Under Russia's chairmanship of the Eurasian Economic Union, a declaration on the further development of economic processes within the EAEU until 2030 and 2045 "Eurasian Economic Way" was adopted. A free trade agreement between the EAEU and Iran was signed, as well as a memorandum of cooperation with Myanmar.

The common approaches of the countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization are enshrined in the joint statements of the foreign ministers on regional security in Eurasia, the situation in Afghanistan, and the prevention of an arms race in outer space. A legal basis has been created for the CSTO to be involved in UN peacekeeping activities. Under the Belarusian chairmanship in the CSTO, a discussion of the problems of the Eurasian security architecture began at a high-level international conference in Minsk (October).

Interaction in the Commonwealth of Independent States has been very productive. At the CIS summit in Bishkek (October), a statement on international relations in a multipolar world was adopted. An agreement on free trade in services, establishment, activities and investments was signed. The work of the CIS Commission on Human Rights and the Commission of Ombudsmen for Children's Rights of the CIS member States has begun. The Treaty on the Establishment of the International Organization for the Russian Language was signed. In order to expand the external relations of the Commonwealth, the statuses of an observer at the CIS and a partner of the CIS have been established.

5. Relations with the Central Asian states were given impetus by the regular meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs in the format "Russia - Central Asian Five" in Samarkand (April). The presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan launched the transportation of Russian natural gas through the territory of Kazakhstan to consumers in Uzbekistan (October).

6. Russia has contributed to the process of Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization based on the trilateral agreements of the leaders. The visa regime for short-term trips of Georgian citizens to Russia has been abolished and direct flights between our countries have been resumed. The first meeting of the foreign ministers of the countries participating in the Three + Three Consultative Regional Platform (Tehran, October), a promising mechanism for cooperation and maintaining stability in the South Caucasus, was successfully held.

7. Russian-Chinese relations have reached an unprecedented level. Xi Jinping made his first foreign visit to Russia after his re-election as President of the People's Republic of China (March). President of Russia Vladimir Putin visited China as part of his participation in the third Belt and Road International Forum (October). Bilateral trade has once again exceeded a record high of over $230 billion. In mutual settlements, the share of the ruble and the yuan was about 80%. The Russian-Chinese nexus played a stabilizing role on the world stage, making a significant contribution to the democratization of the entire system of international relations.

8. Maintain an intensive political dialogue with India, including taking into account the country's chairmanship of the SCO and the G20, and reinforce the Russian-Indian special and privileged strategic partnership. Evidence of the progressive development of cooperation with New Delhi was the growth of trade turnover, which exceeded $54 billion.

9. President Vladimir Putin's meeting with Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome (September) brought Russian-Korean relations to a new level.

10. Important joint steps have been taken to develop Russian-Iranian relations: in particular, an agreement on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway was signed (May), and the Foreign Ministers signed a Declaration on Ways and Means of Countering, Mitigating and Compensating for the Negative Consequences of Unilateral Measures (December).

11. With the launch of the mechanism of regular dialogue at the level of foreign ministers (Moscow, December), cooperation between the Caspian littoral states has been accelerated.

12. Relations with Turkey have reached a strategic level in the field of peaceful nuclear energy: in particular, the supply of Russian nuclear fuel to the Akkuyu NPP has begun.

13. Russia has significantly strengthened its position in the Middle East. Relations with the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, primarily with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have acquired a new quality, including in the stabilization of the global oil market through OPEC+. Relations with the League of Arab States have been developed: Morocco hosted the 6th session of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum at the level of foreign ministers (December).

14. The second Russia-Africa Summit held in St. Petersburg was the culmination of joint efforts to significantly revive ties in this promising area of foreign policy (July). The agreements reached at the highest level have determined the priorities of cooperation with the countries and associations of the African continent in the long term.

15. The expansion of traditional partnerships with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean has been a central element of the agenda of the successful political dialogue with the States of the region at the highest and highest levels. An important milestone was the holding of the International Parliamentary Conference "Russia – Latin America" in Moscow (October).

16. The statement of the foreign ministers on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the strategic partnership between Russia and ASEAN was evidence of strong ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The first trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, China and Indonesia was held in Jakarta, July.

17. A milestone in the development of BRICS was the decision of the Johannesburg Summit (August) to expand the membership of the association from January 1, 2024 by inviting Argentina, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia.

18. The influence of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on global and Eurasian processes has increased: in the outgoing year, Iran became a full member of the SCO, and the way was opened for Belarus to become a member.

19. In its relations with unfriendly states, Russia pursued a principled policy aimed at creating conditions for them to renounce their hostile policy. To this end, measures were taken to debunk the concept of a "rules-based order" promoted by the United States and the European Union. Within the framework of the UN, the OSCE and other multilateral associations, Russia advocated the peaceful development of all states on the basis of the principles of sovereign equality and indivisible security. Plans to isolate Russia internationally have been thwarted. At the same time, there were still opportunities for dialogue and pragmatic cooperation with the West on the basis of equality and respect for each other's interests.

In light of the openly anti-Russian policy and inability of the United States to negotiate, the continued eastward expansion of NATO and the EU, and the creation of new threats to Russia's security, the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms was suspended (February), participation in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was terminated (November), and ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was withdrawn (November). Russia withdrew from the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (September) in response to the actions of Western countries that blocked its work and did not confirm their readiness to transfer the chairmanship of the organization to Russia. In view of the lack of progress in the implementation of the memorandum between Russia and the UN on the normalization of exports of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers, participation in the "Black Sea initiative" for the export of Ukrainian food has been suspended (July).

20. An important milestone in the humanitarian sphere was the establishment of the International Movement of Russophiles, united by common sympathy for Russia and interest in Russian culture and language (March).

The Astronomical Observatories of Kazan Federal University are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Veliky Novgorod joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (November).

The quota for foreign citizens to study at Russian universities has been increased to 30,000 state-funded places. 206,000 books and textbooks in the Russian language were donated to educational organizations in 23 countries.

A world conference on traditional values (November), five regional and more than 70 country conferences, and other events were held as part of cooperation with the movement of Russian compatriots.

As part of the emergency response, comprehensive operations were carried out to evacuate citizens of Russia and a number of other countries from Sudan (April) and the Gaza Strip (November-December), and more than 390 tonnes of Russian humanitarian aid were delivered to the Palestinians.

Since August, the system for issuing unified electronic visas for citizens of 55 countries of the world has been operating to enter Russia. In five months, more than 120 thousand people used it.

In July, the Consulate General of the Russian Federation was opened on the island of Phuket (Thailand), in December the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Burkina Faso was opened, and the Russian Embassy in Libya resumed its activities (June).

As we now know, Argentina has declined becoming a BRICS+ member, but I wouldn’t consider that a negative for Russian policy. Otherwise, I have no further comment on the MFA’s assessment.

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