Veronika Shchepinskaya

Far Eastern Federal University e-mail: vshchepinskaya@gmail.com Supervisor: Klim L.I., candidate of Historical science, Associate Professor

New forms of cooperation in Asia and the Pacific as a guarantee of Russia’s internal development

Russian Federation has been establishing relations with countries of Asia and the Pacific since its developing and settlement of the Far Eastern territories. The main Russian partners and at times competitors in the region are People’s Republic of China (PRC), Japan, Republic of Korea (ROK), Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Socialistic Republic of Vietnam. Moreover, number of partners, notably ASEAN States, in Asia and the Pacific has increased in recent years, as Russia constantly searches for new ways of cooperation in this strategically important region. This process’s successes and failures influence both external policy and internal development of Russia as a European-Asian State.

New forms of cooperation imply new methods, facilities and ultimate goals, besides regular inter-governmental means of interactions. These forms could be divided on three clusters: economic, diplomatic and social forms.

Economic forms of cooperation between Russia and powerful States of Asia and the Pacific usually have had competitive nature in the beginning of the XXI century. However, with the new decade of the century new approaches appeared – today in this region cooperation and collaboration have priority in front of confrontation and competition. For Russia the process of integration to Asia and the Pacific together with the development of Russian Far Eastern regions is the complex goal [1]. AsiaPacific Economic Council (APEC) meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, in 2012 is one of the new diplomacy forms examples. Russia as a hosting country organized the whole infrastructure from scratch, paying attention not only to the event safeguards and conveniences, but to the future development and usage of infrastructure facilities. Two suspension cable-

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stayed bridges, huge campus of Far Eastern Federal University on the Russian Island, new world-class hotels, modernized airport and miles of new roads were built since Russia was announced as a hosting country for the APEC Summit. Investments made on the infrastructure growth and development by central and local government, sponsors and transnational companies made up more than 200 billion rubles in total [2]. Such sums invested to the distant region development were unprecedented, however clearly demonstrating the will of Russian government to provide all necessary conditions for productive efficient cooperation with Asia-Pacific States on its territory. Moreover, all the changes made in infrastructure of the region became an impulse to the region international development and progress.

Local infrastructure improvement gave national companies a great opportunity for growth – the importance of all key infrastructure objects construction by Russian national companies was impressed on the high governmental level [3]. Such measures sometimes are able to support national economy and several industries with bigger results than investments to exact projects.

New forms of economic cooperation in the region include trade between Russia and Asia-Pacific States without third party involvement, direct cooperation on all the issues, especially concerning raw materials trade and transportation. The biggest examples of such approach is the “East Siberia – Pacific Ocean” oil pipeline, the “Altai” gas pipeline through Russian Altai, West China directly to Shanghai. Even taking into account that the second project, the “Altai” gas main, put into construction and operation has been postponed, it still shows the new approach to raw materials trade [4]. Moreover, Russian national gas company ‘Gazprom’ has just prepared significant agreement with ‘Chinese National Petroleum Company’, which states for cooperation upon gas trade and transmissions and is planned to be put into force by the end of 2014 year [5]. Furthermore, Russia came up with the agreement upon gas delivery to the Republic of Korea, the roadmap was signed by Russian company ‘Gazprom’ and Korean company ‘Kogas’ in 2011, which means Russia tries to build trade relations with partners using its main power – raw materials resources.

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Diplomatic forms of cooperation between Russia and States of Asia and the Pacific have always been rather intense, mainly due to the territorial disputes with ones, economy competitiveness with others, cultural differences influence on policy and society.

However, nowadays we can see that competitiveness is no longer the rule for international relations between Russia and its Asian partners. For example, except for the territorial problem, nothing else put obstacles in the way of healthy cooperation between Russia and Japan. Even the fact that territorial disputes about Kuril Islands still causes questions, as far as peace treaty hasn’t been signed yet, never the less it is no longer a military invasion or economic sanctions threat. During the visit of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Mr.Seiji Maehara, to Moscow in 2011 bilateral comprehension concerning relevant international problems was achieved [7].

On the background of territorial disputes suspense, the national patriotism sense is arising among Russian citizens, which also can’t be called as wicked impact of modern diplomacy.

Russia’s modern diplomacy in the Asian region has more open type than ever before – it opens discussions on relevant problems without problems of misunderstanding among nations. Russia talks more about international threats (as terrorism, uncontrolled migration, ecological disasters, etc.) and even more tries to discover measures to fight this threats. This new approach to the diplomacy shows its effectiveness in the region – during last few years it became a platform for international events and projects without any accidents.

New forms of social cooperation include international and intergovernmental educational and scientific projects, cultural events conduction, and tourism raise on the new levels. Concerning education and science – today almost each University in Russia has stable relations with foreign companions, which helps to provide Russian science, technology and diplomacy with qualified experts of international level with the experience of studying abroad on State’s grants. Scientific conferences, seminars and webinars became common form of communication and innovative ideas share among scientific circles representatives. Cultural events, such as film, music or art festivals, cultural fairs, concerts appear in

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each of Asian States annually with the one goal – to achieve cultural multilateral understanding and turn it to the welfare of nations in the region.

All listed above forms of international cooperation bring new forms of Russia’s internal development. Nowadays cooperation stands higher than confrontation, competition occurs in innovations for peaceful development of global society, not in armament races between nations. And these forms of collaboration stand for building strong developed State with neighborly relations in one of the world’s fast-developing region.

Resources

1.Ivanov, I.S., Russia’s Asia-Pacific guidelines after APEC in Vladivostok: towards the II Asia and the Pacific Forum outcomes/Russian International Affairs Council. -2013. -№ 8. – 5-8 pages.

2.APEC Russia 2012/Wikipedia [Web resource]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APEC_Russia_2012.

3.On support for fulfilling measures for constructing infrastructure objects needed for forum “APEC” in 2012/President of Russia Decree. #1277 of 31.08.2008. - 2008. – 1 page.

4.The “Altai” Project implementation was postponed by Russian government till 2030/Russian Business Channel [Web source]. http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/20081007003612.shtm.

5.‘Gazprom’ and ‘CNPC’ achieved significant decisions upon agreement on Russian gas delivery to China/Gazprom [Web source]. http://www.gazprom.ru/press/news/2014/april/article188112/.

6.‘Gazprom’ and ‘Kogas’ signed roadmap on Russian gas delivery to ROK/Gazprom [Web source]. http://www.gazprom.ru/press/news/ 2011/september/article119203/.

7.Ivanov, I.S., Modern Russian-Japanese Relations and Its Development Perspectives/Russian International Affairs Council. - 2012. -

№6. – 7-25 pages.

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