The power of regional economic integration does not solely rest in expanding the growth opportunities for its members via lowering trade barriers and making goods cheaper for consumers. There are crucial external dividends that are reaped by successful and dynamic integration blocks, whereby the soft power as well as the gravity pull of the expanding economic block improves the conditions for trade and investment with the outside world. In economic integration success breeds success in many respects...
Those, mostly in Japan, who expected that the two leaders would, at one stroke, resolve the decades-old territorial dispute, were disappointed. In another disappointment, Putin politely declined to bathe with Abe in Nagato’s famed hot springs, subtly signaling that Russia-Japan relations have not yet matured sufficiently for such an intimacy to happen.
However, the summit did result in some deliverables. The two sides agreed to start consultations on arrangements for joint economic development...
For many years now North Korea has been relentlessly trying to perfect its nuclear program by conducting four nuclear tests and developing ballistic missiles that could be topped with nuclear warheads.
A Russian regional security expert in Vladivostok says North Korea cannot but continue to develop nuclear weapons because it believes that is the only way to guarantee regime survival.
"It is a defensive weapon for them a political tool for survival and some extent a tool of black mailing and...
Russia's budget deficit could reach 1.5 trillion rubles (US$21.7 billion) in 2016 with an oil price baseline of US$40 a barrel, Deputy Finance Minister Maxim Oreshkin was quoted by Interfax as saying. But now, the oil price has fallen to its lowest level since 2004, with Brent Crude at US$36.05 a barrel as of December 21.
Amidst Russia’s strained relations with the West, and now Turkey as well, Chinese investment has become more important to the Russian economy. But can Russia count...
Nowadays, Russia is the global leader in the number of nuclear energy blocks under commissioning abroad. The state company Rosatom has been building 18 nuclear power blocks. The high competitiveness is based upon sophisticated modern technologies, all projects meet IAAE requirements. The most popular export product is 3rd generation light water reactor. The gross sum of contracts in 2014 exceeded 100 billion USD and demand tends to grow up as there is an evident need for reliable source of alternative...
The last 2014 was rich in events, substantially changed international situation in the world. This also applies to russian-north korean relations, which has been given new impulse. It is illustrated by intensification of visits to Russia the DPRK`s high-ranking delegations. Particularly, since last year`s February the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly Presidium Chairman Kim Yong-Nam[1], North Korea's Minister of Foreign Trade Lee Ren-Nam[2], the DPRK Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Young[3]...
On 13 July 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a legislation establishing Vladivostok Free Port. One of effects of the new law is the introduction of the on-arrival visa regime in Vladivostok. This can promote tourism from Japan.
The City of Vladivostok is a jewel in the Far East. Every Japanese visitor is impressed by the fact that there is an authentic European city so close to Japan. It takes only two and half hours' flight from Tokyo-Narita Airport to Vladivostok. If the flow...
Kim Jong-un is scheduled to visit Moscow this May as one of the Kremlin's numerous guests of honor for the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. This will be his first visit abroad since he succeeded his father Kim Jong-il as the ruler of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in December 2011.
Kim Jong-un's trip to Moscow is one indication of the warming relationship between Russia and North Korea. The past year has seen a flurry of high-level exchanges...
This eastward drive has been in the making for quite a while. In the second half of the 2000s, Moscow began taking steps to develop the long-neglected Russian Far East, expand economic cooperation with East Asia, and diversify away from economically stagnant Europe.
At the time, Moscow’s pursuit of closer ties with Asia seemed somewhat half-hearted and did not produce substantial results.
It was not until the arrival of the Ukraine crisis and subsequent Western sanctions that Russia’s...
In the aftermath of Western sanctions on Ukraine, many analysts have predicted that Russia will reorient its economy away from the West, with which it has profitably traded energy in exchange for investment and consumer goods, toward the East, toward China above all.
There are some signs that economies ties between Russia and China are developing. Chinese direct investment in Russia more than doubled in 2014, reaching $8 billion, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce. Leading Russian...
