Russia's enduring interests in Asia-Pacific region
Asia and Russian leadership and erstwhile Soviet leadership have long sought to play a greater role in the Asia-Pacific (or what India terms as the Indo-Pacific region). This role is gaining further momentum following rupture in ties with the West in the aftermath of the Ukraine conflict.
Simultaneously, Japan wants to maintain its energy ties with Russia. Japan will make sure its energy supplies are not affected by sanctions the United States recently imposed on the Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia in which it has a stake, Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said early November.
The Arctic LNG 2 project is to be launched next month, with shareholder Japan eligible for 2 million metric tons of LNG per year, or 3% of total imports, once the plant is fully operational in the second half of this decade, according to a report in Reuters.
The project's full capacity is 19.8 million tones per year, of which 80% are destined for Asia.
«We recognise that this is an important project for Japan's stable energy supply in the LNG market, where supply and demand are expected to remain tight for the time being,» Nishimura said, according to the Reuters report.
Japan is also a shareholder in the Russian oil project Sakhalin 1 and the Sakhalin 2 LNG plant in the Russian Far East.
However, it is not just Japan alone, which wants to maintain energy ties with Russia. SE Asia’s biggest economy, Indonesia, is of the opinion that ASEAN considers Russia as the main supplier of grain.
