The Altai Republic recently submitted an application to the Secretariat for the NEAR membership, which, if approved at the 14th NEAR General Assembly to be held in Ulsan on October 25, will bring the total number of NEAR members to 80.

This is the first time in nine years that a Russian local government has joined NEAR since 2014, and it is noteworthy that the local government is committed to continuing multilateral exchange with other local governments of the six Northeast Asian countries even in the face of the so-called "New Cold War".

The Russian Consulate General in Busan actively supported the Altai Republic with its application for the NEAR membership.