scholarly journals Russian–Chinese Cooperation in Central Asia and the Idea of Greater Eurasia

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Lukin

The author argues that Russian–Chinese rapprochement is a fundamental feature of the current changing system of international relations. Apart from its own significance, it has become important because it stimulated and, in some cases, laid the foundation for many broader international processes: the creation of the multipolar world, the emergence of such international groups and organisations as BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the coordination between Eurasian Economic Union and the Chinese initiative of Silk Road Economic Belt and others. Recently, all these processes led to the idea of Greater Eurasia or Eurasian partnership.

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 64-69
Author(s):  
JIANG SIYUAN ◽  
◽  
GAN ZHONGYANG ◽  

The process of integrating the Chinese initiative ‘One Belt, One Road’ and the EEU development concept has entered a new stage – the transition from project cooperation to systematization. The creation of an inter-regional mechanism for the settlement of commercial disputes is an urgent need to resolve disagreements in the field of trade, as well as an important guarantee of the further development of trade and economic cooperation and coordinated interaction of countries. The article gives recommendations on the creation of a mechanism for the settlement of commercial disputes within the framework of interfacing the construction of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-57
Author(s):  
Gaziza Shakhanova ◽  
Jeremy Garlick

The Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is a key partner in China’s Belt, and Road Initiative (BRI), since it comprises the majority of territories which the BRI’s overland route, the Silk Road Economic Belt, needs to traverse as it crosses Central Asia on the way to Europe. The goal of this article is to explore the BRI in the context of BRI–EAEU coordination. The first part of the analysis focusses on the ways the Eurasian Economic Commission delineates the “Greater Eurasian Partnership” and counterposes it against China and the BRI. Then, the article compares two sets of interpretations of the BRI and “Greater Eurasian Partnership” obtained from interviews with elites in Kazakhstan and Russia. The interviews indicate that the BRI has had a much more forceful impact on local elites than Russia’s idea of “Greater Eurasian Partnership.”


Author(s):  
Ivan Zuenko

The 2010s became the time of active search for new forms of integration in the wide Eurasian space between Europe and East Asia. The most well-known is China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). A 7000-kilometre border between China and the EAEU was formed in 2015, which became a crucial factor in the cooperation of China and Post-Soviet Central Asia. Many regard the EAEU as just a Moscow geopolitical project and underestimated its real impacts on economic and political ties in Eurasia, particularly in post-Soviet Central Asia. This chapter examines the EAEU as a factor of international relations in the global discussion about the OBOR initiative.


Subject Japan-Central Asia ties. Significance Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make a five-nation tour of Central Asia in August -- the first since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's in 2006. With the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union in effect as of January 1 and China fleshing out its plans for a 'New Silk Road Economic Belt', Japan presents itself as a 'third option' that could dilute China's and Russia's predominance. Impacts Opportunities for Japanese investment will grow, especially in the field of nuclear energy. Security ties could grow under the Abe government's defence reforms, 'proactive pacificism' and new interest in counter-terrorism. South Korea presents itself as another 'third option' and other countries are becoming more active too, even as the US presence recedes.


Subject Tajikistan's options for joining Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. Significance Russia hopes that the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which came into force on January 1, will include Tajikistan. The EEU currently comprises Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia, with Kyrgyzstan set to join in May. Moscow is eager to pursue expansion of the EEU as its relations with the West deteriorate as a result of the Ukraine crisis. Russia is also believed to be seeking to put a check on China, whose 'silk road economic belt' will see billions of dollars invested in Central Asia. However, the economic benefits of EEU membership for Tajikistan are debatable and could put at risk its increasingly important relationship with China. Impacts EEU membership risks continuing a trend of significant numbers of Tajikistanis being dependent on working in Russia. EEU success will depend on the extent to which Russia is able to act as a destination for merchandise exports. As Russia's economy slows, the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Tajikistani workers returning home will rise, as will instability risk.


Author(s):  
Andrew Korybko ◽  
Vladimir Morozov

Connectivity is one of the key trends of the 21st century, which Russia is fully embracing with its Greater Eurasian Partnership (GEP) in order to counteract the chaotic processes unleashed throughout the course of the ongoing systemic transition from unipolarity to multipolarity. This outlook sets forth the grand strategic task of integrating with some of the former countries of the erstwhile Soviet Union through the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and then further afield with the other regions of Eurasia in order to benefit from the growing cross-supercontinental trade between Europe and Asia. President Putin declared during the second Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) Forum in April 2019 that this Chinese-led project “rimes with Russia’s idea to establish a Greater Eurasian Partnership” and that “The five EAEU member states have unanimously supported the idea of pairing the EAEU development and the Chinese Silk Road Economic Belt project”. It naturally follows that the pairing of the EAEU with BRI would involve Russia improving its connectivity with the latter’s flagship project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in South Asia, thereby endowing Pakistan with an important role in the GEP. The rapidly improving relations between Moscow and Islamabad, as well as the peacemaking efforts undertaken by those two states and other stakeholders in Afghanistan across 2019, raise the prospect of a future trade corridor traversing through the countries between them and thus creating a new axis of Eurasian integration that would complete the first envisaged step of bringing the EAEU and BRI closer together. In pursuit of this multilaterally beneficial outcome, it’s important to explain the policymaking and academic bases behind it so as to prove the viability of this proposal.


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