... Trade turnover with India is on the rise, and an agreement has been reached to build a gas pipeline to that country. Finally, work has been stepped up to launch direct railway service to Iran towards India and the Persian Gulf region via Azerbaijan.
The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) Commission and Beijing are discussing concrete ways to integrate the Silk Road project with the EEU and create a non-preferential free trade area between the Eurasian Economic Union and China. A similar agreement has been signed with Vietnam. Almost ...
... booming Asia through the development of Siberia and the Far East, although the turn is belated and slow. Relations of friendship and profound strategic partnership with China have been established. The agreement to pair the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Eurasian Economic Union has proved helpful in avoiding rivalry in Central Asia. Vast potential has been built up for deepening cooperation with the ASEAN countries, Japan and South Korea.
As a result, Russia has secured a rather robust geopolitical position ...
... on the ideas that I agree with, and more on the parts of the narrative that are likely to be perceived differently in Moscow. In my view, these differences in opinion are exactly the parts of the narrative that should remain at the centre of future EU-Russia discussions, at least at the expert level.
The “Western” system;
In her article Kadri Liik refers to the lack of interest Russia expressed in joining the “Western OSCE-based system” (or the “OSCE-based order”) ...
... it would have lost the OSCE-based principles of the European order.
Finally, the third option – a combination of firmness and an appealing project - runs the risk of being misunderstood by Russia in the same way the reset was misunderstood. The EU-EEU cooperation especially has its natural limits can cannot be ignored. For the time being, the EEU Commission has a mandate to handle just the trade issues, but one of the Union’s members, Belarus, is not a member of the WTO. For the EU, all trade ...
... EU and the EEU share common interests?
3. What are the major potential directions of cooperation?
4. Mechanisms of the EU cooperation with other integration formations of the world: is any analogy possible?
5. Prospects for dialogue in terms of the EU-EEU-China’s Silk Road Economic Belt interaction.
The experts paid particular attention to possible formats of cooperation between the EU and the EEU and to the areas where such cooperation could be established in the near future.
The event was attended ...