The “Asian Sea Arc” and Russia’s “ASEAN Pivot”. Geo-Economic Shift towards South East Asia | Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization

In terms of strategy, it's much more likely that Russia can make a stronger economic impact in newly emerging markets where there's less of an institutionalized and established competitive presence, like in Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, and whose economies are scaled much smaller than regional powerhouses Indonesia and Malaysia, for example. The results of this would be to court a much more favorable impression that their decision makers would then have towards reaching a future free trade deal with Russia (through the Eurasian Union), as a relatively smaller investment in these SEZs could have a much larger effect on their respective economies. Looking at the bigger picture, if Russia is serious about reaching an ASEAN-Eurasian Union Free Trade Agreement, then its best bet is to first seal such deals with mainland ASEAN (Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia), and then have this internal bloc of economies lobby their insular counterparts for a wider deal with the rest of the organization. As Vietnam already has a free trade deal with Russia and Thailand is rapidly moving towards that direction, the focus thus passes to Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-asian-sea-arc-and-russias-asean-pivot-geo-economic-shift-towards-south-east-asia/5484363