On March 4, 2021 the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) held a joint webinar “New Era of Globalization and Global Governance: Views from Russia and China”.
Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General, and Sun Zhuangzhi, Director of the CASS Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies (IREECAS), delivered opening remarks.
On March 4, 2021 the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) held a joint webinar “New Era of Globalization and Global Governance: Views from Russia and China”.
Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General, and Sun Zhuangzhi, Director of the CASS Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies (IREECAS), delivered opening remarks.
The Russian side was represented by Yaroslav Lissovolik, Chief Managing Director of Sberbank, Head of the Analytical Department of Global Markets – Sberbank Investment Research, RIAC Member; Fyodor Lukyanov, Chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and Editor-in-Chief of the “Russia in Global Affairs” Magazine, RIAC Member; and Mikhail Konarovsky, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation, Leading Research Fellow at the Center for East Asia and SCO Studies, MGIMO University, RIAC Member. Xu Poling, Head of the Russian Economy Department at the IREECAS CASS; Ren Lin, Leading Research Fellow at the CASS Institute of World Economics and Politics; and Liu Fenghua, Head of the Russian Foreign Policy Research Department at the IREECAS CASS presented the Chinese point of view.
The speakers drew attention of the audience to the opportunities arising for Russia and China from new multilateralism in the form of the BRICS+ project or improved connectivity between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and China’s One Belt — One Road Initiative (OBOR), as well as to the challenges the countries are facing, in the bilateral relations as well as globally. They also emphasized changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and touched upon the U.S. foreign policy under Biden administration.
Alexander Lomanov, Deputy Director for Scientific Work at the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of RAS and RAS Professor; Anna Kireeva, Associate Professor of the Department of Asian and African Studies and Research Fellow at the Center for Comprehensive Chinese Studies and Regional Projects at MGIMO University; and Anastasia Pyatachkova, Deputy Head of the Asia Pacific Department at the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics, took part in the follow-up discussion. Ksenia Kuzmina, RIAC Program Manager, moderated the meeting.
Discussion Summary
Current state of global governance
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The world is experiencing deglobalization and finds itself amidst a crisis of global governance, which poses a threat to both global security and development. Although there are some signs of hope, they cannot reverse the major negative trend.
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The previous stage of globalization has had many negative consequences: widening gap between the rich and the poor, spread of populism, the new arms race, protectionism and unilateralism. These consequences have been aggravated by the pandemic. Although in the new era of globalization cooperation is likely to dominate, there are objective obstacles to it.
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The main feature of the future system of global governance is that most states will have to put domestic policy first and prioritize national agenda over the global one. Using foreign policy for internal purposes and not vice versa may change the whole course of international processes, making them more pragmatic and less ideology-driven. The second feature is difficulties with persuading world leaders to focus collectively on solving global issues such as climate change. This poses a threat to collective actions as a phenomenon.
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The current world order is characterized by stagnation, the destruction of several key cooperation mechanisms caused by protectionism and use of bilateral cooperation against third countries.
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Isolationism caused by the pandemic is hindering the development of high technology worldwide.
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International community faces two main tasks. They are managing deglobalization, including in the sphere of strategic stability, and preparing for a new wave of globalization through enhancing governance mechanisms, especially in terms of resources management.
Russia and China in the changing environment
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Russia and China have two major tasks: managing deglobalization, including cost reduction and damage limitation of this process, and preparing a new stage of globalization, paying special attention to the IT and human resources areas.
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Russia and China share a lot of goals both regionally and globally: combating security threats, developing neighboring regions, strengthening respective international authority, opposing unilateralism, strictly observing international law.
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As Russia and China have common views on global problems, their differences concerning some regional problems do not impede the dialogue, which is extremely important after the pandemic.
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China focuses on its national interests, but remains open to the world. China strictly observes international law, supports globalization as it is of vital importance for global development, condemns the policy of containment and develops the concept of the community with a shared future for mankind. China should improve existing market practices and find new ways of collective development of the world economy.
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The US hegemonic practices of “selective multilateralism” directed against third countries, and the implementation of its own rules have a negative impact on the Russian and Chinese economies. Implementing sanctions against Russia contradicts free trade and cooperation principles.
Various formats of cooperation
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Introduced by China in 2017, the “BRICS+” mechanism is likely to bring economic benefits and is therefore worth developing after the pandemic. The most promising areas of such cooperation are banking, investment, regional integration, digital economy.
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The New Development Bank may benefit from new members – regional partners of BRICS countries or other developed countries. Inviting such partners is no threat to relations inside BRICS.
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China should create and develop open and inclusive cooperation platforms based on mutual respect and dialogue, e.g. the Belt and Road Initiative, “BRICS+”, cooperation with the ASEAN and the EU.
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Although the SCO membership has expanded, Russia and China are still to remain pillars of the format.
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The idea of the Greater Eurasian Partnership, which was first mentioned by Vladimir Putin in 2016, has not fully developed yet, but it can probably include trade in goods and services, universal technological requirements, energy cooperation, equal partnership for countries with different levels of economic development, etc.
