HANOI. November 1 (Interfax) - Russia sees its relations with the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) countries as its absolute priority consistent with the country's modernization interests, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.
"The APR is the most dynamically growing region. It concentrates nearly 50% of global GDP. Cooperation with the APR countries is our absolute priority," Medvedev told a press conference after talks with the Vietnamese president in Hanoi.
"Russia is also an APR country because it participates in all economic and political processes occurring here," he said.
Russia is set to cooperate with the countries not only in the energy sector but also to develop new projects in areas such as high technologies and nuclear energy, Medvedev said.
Asked whether his visit to Vietnam means Russia's energetic return to this region, Medvedev said that in Southeast Asia "we have a more obvious situation than in Africa and Latin America."
"We never left. We do not need to restore anything. We just need to take these relations to a higher level," said the president, adding that Russia and Vietnam "have always been friends, both during the Soviet era and now."