On June 12, the Russian people celebrate their national holiday – Russia’s Day. Celebrations on this occasion have been held since 1992, but over time they acquire greater importance and more profound meaning for Russians and their compatriots abroad. This day symbolises the centuries-old historic path of our Fatherland full of the tragic pages, great achievements and victories.

The history has repeatedly shown that the people of Russia due to their utmost moral fortitude, stamina and determination successfully passed through all the ordeals and trials which befell them. They have made an enormous contribution to the progress of the modern civilisation, presented to the world with the greatest cultural monuments and masterpieces, developed the unique engineering, scientific and technological potential and experience, sharing it with the world, especially with developing countries.

Presently, all outside attempts to slow down the ongoing development of Russia only lead to ever greater consolidation of the Russian society, its increased awareness of the value of the achieved political stability and the desire to make further economic and social advances.

The Russian government is pursuing a consistent policy of the country’s balanced development with an emphasis on promoting good governance and anti-corruption drive, strengthening the state and civil society active dialogue, increasing the quality of education and health care, law enforcement capacity to protect the law and human dignity.

Active steps are being taken to improve the investment climate, increase the financial system sustainability, accelerate import substitution and deoffshorisation. The work is under way to implement the large-scale creative plans, including a number of major infrastructure projects, in particular, construction of cutting-edge nuclear power plants, new and most advanced space systems, the Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway, which will run further through Kazakhstan to Beijing, modernisation of the Baykal-Amur Railroad, Trans-Siberian Railway, etc. Special attention is on bringing up to the national standard of the social and physical infrastructure of Crimea which became a part of Russia in 2014, as well as turning it into a thriving oasis and one of the country’s key recreational centres.

On the world stage Russia remains a consistent advocate of promoting international relations based on equality, indivisible security, inadmissibility of double standards and supremacy of international law. It stands for creation of the security and cooperation architecture in Asia-Pacific imbued with these principles. Russia, as a participant of the Eurasian Economic Union established on January 1, 2015, will pursue its transformation into an effective link between Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Russia has always been a reliable partner of Cambodia. Both countries have been tied with the bonds of strong “all-weather” friendship, decades of diverse and fruitful cooperation, the present foundation of which was laid by the Joint Declaration on the basis of friendly relations signed in 1995. The legal base of our bilateral cooperation is expanding. The Russian-Cambodian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation has functioned since 1997, the 8th Session of the Commission was held in March 2015 in Moscow.

The political, cultural and youth contacts between our countries are actively developing. The first meeting in the recent history of the Russian-Cambodian relations between Dmitry Medvedev, chairman of the government of the Russian Federation and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was held on the sidelines of the 9th East Asia Summit in Naypyidaw in November 2014. In just the past few months, there were visits to Russia of Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong in March, and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng in May.

From the Russian side, visits to Cambodia from Andrey Klimov, member of the Presidium of the General Council of the Party “United Russia” in December; Sergey Pospelov, head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, in January; and Nikolay Korolev, deputy head of the Federal Agency for Tourism in February. In the next few months a number of other bilateral meetings at ministerial level are slated to be held.

We are looking forward to realising the broad vistas of cooperation in trade and economy, science and technology and infrastructure development between our countries. I am confident that joint implementation of these perspective plans will enable us to realise the great potential of the Russian-Cambodian interaction for the benefit of our two peoples.

Dmitry Tsvetkov is the ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Kingdom of Cambodia.