Eurasian States:

Socio-Economic and Political Processes

Arun Mohanty and Ajay Patnaik

• Publisher: KW Publishers
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9789386288073
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Relaciones internacionales

Eurasia, a region which essentially consists of the former Soviet republics, has always drawn international attention because of its geographical location, strategic significance and the presence of huge amounts of natural resources. This region has become an arena of sharp competition for influence between all the major powers in the world—the US, the European Union, China, Japan, India, Turkey, Iran, besides many others. The Eurasian states are about to complete the first 25 years of their independent existence and tumultuous transition. Each of the European states has chosen its own strategy for development as wells as its foreign policy priorities. While the democratic reforms in these countries have faced enormous problems, the economic transition from a state-controlled economy to a market one has been painful. There is no single model that can characterise the entire region in terms of its political and socio-economic transformation. The prevalence of ethnic tensions combined with frozen conflicts between many of the CIS countries has compounded the situation. The competing integration processes sponsored by the major powers have further exacerbated tensions in the former Soviet space.While Russia, the major state in the region, is India's special and privileged strategic partner, Central Asia falls in its extended neighbourhood, thus highlighting its significance in terms of India's long-term interests. While the Western analyses of the developments in the region remain largely subjective and biased, India needs to develop its own perspective in order to best serve its interests, as developments in that part of the globe can have immense implications for New Delhi.The volume discusses in depth, the political and economic developments as well as the issues related to the stability, security and integration of the region. Scholars from many foreign countries including Russia and other CIS countries as well as Indian experts from different universities have analysed issues such as inter-state relations, the role of external players, issues of socio-cultural developments as well as India's bilateral relations with the member states of the CIS.

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Section III

EURASIAN INTEGRATION

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11.	Sino-Russian Relations in the New Era
	Shi Ze

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In the recent years, Sino-Russian relations have continued to deepen on the original high-level trajectory and maintained the strong momentum of development. The sustainable development of Sino-Russian relations is by no means fortuitous, but lies in the following internal impetuses and reasons: firstly, the historical experiences and lessons serve as a precious heritage which enables China and Russia to develop from unfriendly rivals to friendly neighbours. Practice has proven that the principles set by the two countries featuring non-confrontation, nonalignment, non-targeting at a third country and respecting each other’s choices are correct and energetic. For more than 20 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia, the bilateral relations have gone through many ups and downs, but still keep on developing in an upward trend in the volatile international community, which is by no means easy to maintain. Among all the major power relations, the stable development of the China–Russia one, that too for several decades, is rare. The establishment of relations between the two countries has witnessed solid progress, ranging from a strategic and cooperative to a comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership.

The most important event of their bilateral relations was that the two countries signed a historic Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendship in 2001. Secondly, the friendship between China and Russia is decided by their own development stages and historic tasks. Their physical adjacency, especially the shared border of over 4,300 kilometres, makes it necessary for the two countries to foster a steady and favorable neighbouring environment in order to safeguard their sovereignty and to promote development. At present, since both the countries are concentrating on revitalising their domestic economies and addressing their domestic issues, they are badly in need of a long-term and stable surrounding environment. Under such conditions, obviously, how to establish a proper and sound relationship with the biggest neighbour becomes a top priority in the agenda of the two countries’ foreign policy. For many years, both the Chinese and Russian politicians have been clearly aware of the significance of building sound bilateral relations. They are eager to maintain long-term good-neighbourliness and friendliness, and sincerely hope that they can always be good neighbours, friends and partners. Such a firm and clear political will is essential for guiding a sound development of bilateral relations.

Thirdly, the China–Russia friendship is decided by the two countries’ geopolitical status and strategic security environment. Both countries are confronted with some common or similar troubles, involving separatism, terrorism, the threat of extremism as well as matters related to Chechnya, Taiwan and Xinjiang, and the two countries need each other’s support to tackle these issues through concerted efforts. After the Cold War, great changes have taken place in the world that make the two countries dependent on each other and help them maintain their strategic initiatives. Of course, this strategic cooperation is not targeting any third country. Besides, after several decades of painstaking efforts, the two sides have gradually solved historical disputes that could have exerted a bad influence on the bilateral relations. The two countries have completely solved boundary issues that had existed for long, which marks a significant achievement in their bilateral relations. It is true that there is no source of sensitive issues hindering the development of bilateral relations and that all problems can be solved through negotiation in a friendly way. Meanwhile, the two countries have set aside their different ideologies, attaching greater importance to a pragmatic cooperation with each other.

Compared with the other major power relations, the China–Russia one is marked with an important characteristic, which means that their international cooperation runs through the whole relationship. After the Cold War, both China and Russia have paid keen attention to each other’s geopolitical role, especially in reference to the balancing of power by the United States. This external or international factor is the main engine driving the further development of the Sino-Russian relations. History has also proven this to be right. A series of issues, including the US’s bombing of Yugoslavia, the NATO’s eastward expansion, the American deployment of a missile defence system in Europe and its intervention into the Taiwanese affairs as well as the domestic affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States provide great opportunities and motivation for a closer relationship between the two countries. Such a phenomenon is often decided by a specific historical environment. The China–Russia cooperation plays a vital role in safeguarding the two countries’ own interests, maintaining a balance among all the countries and in fighting against the hegemony of the Western world. However, it is clear that there are quite much of a short-term cooperation and emergency response coordination between these two countries, while the strategic measures to promote long-term cooperation are less. Since they pay greater attention to each other’s geopolitical status and give top priority to tackling the external pressures, they never make their bilateral pragmatic cooperation the central task, resulting in a low level of economic cooperation, in terms of both quality and quantity, between them. It should be noted that a low-level economic cooperation has underlying reasons. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the resulting political chaos and sluggish economy restricted the potential for economic cooperation. The trade volume between China and Russia has been around tens of billions dollars for a long time. If we compare China’s trade volume with the other countries, we can get an even clearer picture. The trade volume between China and the United States stands at over 500 billion dollars, with the European Union being more than that number, over 300 billion dollars with Japan and 210 billion with South Korea.

The changes in the international situation further highlight the urgency for the two countries in improving their trading ties. Practice shows that the important impetus propelling the development of bilateral relations between these two countries—economic and trade cooperation—has always been a weak point. The two sides are not each other’s key economic and trade partners in the long run. In consequence, bilateral political relations at a high level are closer than the economic relations at a low level. It is even more salient to alter the inconsistency between politics and economic development that could be neglected before the outbreak of a financial crisis. The weak economic relation between the two sides is attributed to the difference in concepts, institutions and structures, without any doubt. Even though it has evolved by leaps and bounds in recent years, it still can’t meet the demand of the rapid development of bilateral relations. Fairly speaking, the prominent problem in the bilateral economic and trade cooperation is the improper trade structure. Russia exports resources and energy while China exports light industrial and mechanical and electrical products, as determined by their bilateral industrial structures. The Russian export of resource, so to speak, is a historical issue boasting of necessity. Thus, it is never easy to change its economic structure that has evolved from history. I still remember that in 1965 when Premier Kosygin was in office, he put forward that the economic structure in Russia should be improved. However, it has become worse, rather than achieving any improvement. The export accounts for 65–70% of the national income and 85–90% of the foreign exchange, which will indeed engender grave consequences for the development of Russia in the long term.

With the changes in the global situation as at present, the condition for further advancing the Sino-Russian relations is much different than before. The unicity of the development force of the bilateral relations must be transformed and the two sides should explore a new impetus to stimulate the development of their bilateral relations. I believe the breakthrough point lies in economic cooperation. Sino-Russian relations should be boosted by promoting each other’s domestic economic development through bilateral cooperation. The period after the financial crisis gives us this opportunity. There are following reasons: Firstly, after the crisis, the overall recession of the USA, Europe and Japan, brings new challenges to China and Russia whose development depends on external factors. The economic development of China and Russia is driven by foreign trade, which relies highly on the external market. The declining American, European and Japanese demand for commodities from China restricts China’s development. The export market for the Russian resources is mainly the European Union which has also decreased its demand for them. The two countries possess immediate problems pertaining to the domestic economy and development. in In economic terms, the two sides need each other more than ever. In particular, the increasing independence of American energy greatly impacts Russia. With the dependence of the US on importing the Middle Eastern oil receding and the latter transferring its attention to China and Europe, the market of Russia faces the challenge of shrinking. Meanwhile, the enormous market of China has a larger attraction for Russia which will not blunder away this opportunity. Secondly, the role of China has altered. In the previous economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia, China only played the role of a trading partner of export commodities, while Russia urgently needs investments for revitalising its economy; therefore, Russia just focuses its attention to the Western world. As China’s economy increasingly develops in a sustainable way, it has come to boast of a strong outbound investment capacity and has evolved from a trading partner to an investment partner, which draws an immense attraction from Russia. As the Western countries can’t easily address their own affairs, they can no longer provide enough capital to Russia. That is the premise of the Russian policy of attaching importance to the Asia-Pacific area. The openness of Russia will be the main trend after its participation in the WTO, which will bring more opportunities to the bilateral cooperation. Thirdly, it is an urgent task for both the countries to give priority to economic restructuring. China advocates a scientific outlook on development and improves its economic structure, while Russia is pursuing modernisation and advocates scientific and technical innovation. The complementarities and mutual help in economic terms between the two countries are conducive to the unleashing of their greater economic cooperation potential.

In terms of politics, the Sino-Russian relations are of a strategic and political significance. The premise of economic cooperation is the perdurability of bilateral relations, without which there can be no prospect for favourable cooperation. We have reasons to be optimistic about the future bilateral relations. But on a new and high level point, a more solid foundation should be created for the Sino-Russian relations. The current international strategic situation is both complicated and complex. The US is aggressive in the Asia-Pacific and European areas, deeply intervening in hot issues such as Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the South China Sea and is provoking disorder around China and Russia. Our two countries need to reinforce coordination and cooperation on the international stage. However, under the new circumstances, one wheel can’t prop up the mansion of our bilateral relations which demands two or more wheels. The status of the economic cooperation has been highlighted and also that a good political relation requires a strong economic foundation. The future bilateral economic cooperation between the two sides will play a strengthening role in the bilateral relations. China’s sustainable economic development model can’t be divorced from its cooperation with Russia. To reinvigorate its slumping economy, Russia also wouldn’t give up China under sanctions from the United States and the Western world. The Sino-Russian relations in the future will give a greater priority to the multi-wheel driving forces for cooperation in the fields of economy, politics, security, humanitarian operations and strategy, which will bring more of the real benefits to the two sides. Our two countries should especially seize the opportunities in the area of economic cooperation, boosting it firmly, while at the same time deepening the cooperation in other fields such as investment, local cooperation, energy, transportation and science and technology. They should also further strengthen bilateral relations to a higher level, bringing benefits to our two peoples and making contributions to the stability and prosperity...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Introduction
• Section I: EURASIAN SPACE: CONCEPTS AND DEBATES
• Section II: ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN EURASIA
• Section III: EURASIAN INTEGRATION
• Section IV: TRANSITION IN RUSSIA
• Section V: CRISIS IN UKRAINE
• Section VI: INDO-RUSSIA TIES
• Editor’s Profile