Several integration unions with the participation of Russia have appeared in recent times. And the question about their interaction with each other and other unions is topical. For example, Moscow thinks that members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Shanghai Organization of Cooperation (SCO) should develop the possibility of establishing a united economic space. At the same time, Berlin doesn’t rule out signing a joint declaration between the EU and Russia, which will encourage economic integration between the EU and the EAEU.
Commenting on the trends in global politics, Denis Tyurin, the director of the Business Club of the SCO, says that “in creating such zones of economic interests and structuring them according to personal preferences, the US is trying to divide Eurasia into two parts in their opinion. Western Europe is forced to support the US with the help of the Atlantic. Japan, Korea and the Asia-Pacific countries except for China with the help of the Pacific Ocean. They need to create an economic bloc, declaring it as one of the implicit goals, directed at restraining China.”
Meanwhile, according to the expert, “an attempt to divide Eurasia into two parts, separating the Western and the Eastern parts and leaving Russia, China, India and other countries on their own, is probably one of the reasons for the crisis in Ukraine, when there were also attempts to divide it into two parts. All the economic interests are traditionally in the East, together with Russia, but due to the fact that the EU and the US put out their eyes to start such conflicting processes.”
Tyurin says that a similar situation is going on in Georgia: “The country is on the brink of separation between Eurasian and Euro-Atlantic integration. Probably, it would not be not so good if the separation was legally supported on a permanent basis, despite the fact that the economic interests of Georgia are still closer to Russia than the EU.”
Andrei Ilyashenko, the director of the ANO Regional medianet, states that Ukraine is on the border with the EU, while the Caucasus countries don't have direct borders. "Certainly, we note advanced maritime routes. In principle, the economy tends towards globalization, internationalization, but proximity plays a specific role. Therefore, we speak about Eurasian integration as the integration of the states located on this continent. However, integration can be a mean of political solutions to some problems. The US is a powerful pole, of course, and it has unique interests. All other countries, except for some states, have the same direction of their economic and political interests. I think that even China, the second-largest economy of the world, cannot announce that it has some global political interests.”
According to the expert, “economic integration in varying degrees is a means of solving the political disagreements that exist in a particular region now. But in any case, we should study and discuss the topic, as well as monitor the sequence of events.”
