By Vestnik Kavkaza
In the context of recent geopolitical events Russia has focused its attention on diversification of its economy and intensive cooperation with the post-Soviet countries and the Asian-Pacific Region. Vestnik Kavkaza asked Yevgeny Bazhanov, the rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, about changes in relations with the countries in recent times.
- Do you think China’s policy will change due to strengthening of confrontation between Russia and the USA? How will China act?
- Of course China doesn’t want to fight with the United States, even though they have reasons for fighting. They are rivals in the Asian-Pacific Region, and their relations are difficult and ambiguous. However, the Chinese intend to have normal relations with the U.S., despite all these disputes – they have intensive trade with each other, huge mutual investments, tight cooperation in the cultural sphere. More than two million Chinese live and work in the United States, and Americans – in China.
China understands that without America they cannot solve many problems of the APR, and the Americans understand the same thing about China. So they have difficult, complicated relations, but China intends to have normal relations with the USA.
At the same time, China is very interested in good relations with Russia. Our cooperation has a strong foundation. We have similar positions on the majority of international issues. We have a common geopolitical interest: we want the world to be multipolar and be controlled not by the USA or by force, but by the principles of the UN and international law. So we have similar positions on many acute issues: Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, extension of NATO, Ukraine, and so on. And of course our cooperation will continue.
Secondly, at the moment we have new opportunities for development of economic relations. We should develop Siberia and the Far East, but we are unable to do it by ourselves. We lack resources – human and financial resources. We are interested in involvement of foreigners not only from China, but all neighboring countries: Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia. If the Americans want to work for us – welcome! But today the West tries to put pressure on Russia, reduce economic cooperation with us, and the role of China in our economic development, our economic contacts is growing.
So in a sense it is beneficial for the Chinese that new opportunities for coming to our market have appeared. And this is beneficial for us as well. But nobody wants to establish a military union of Russia and China, which would be directed against other countries. China has no such goal. They want to preserve normal relations with the West, including the U.S. And we want this too. This is our position. But the West tries to put pressure on us, while we stand for normal relations with the West, the East, the U.S., China, and our neighbors in the post-Soviet space. This is our priority task – to achieve integration in the end. At the moment we are going through a difficult period, but the grounds of our policy are not changing.
- Speaking about our allies, the recent Minsk talks have demonstrated that there is no one position inside the Customs Union on many issues. What does it mean? Does it mean the Union is weak?
- There are different points of view in any union. This is not a state; these are independent states which have agreed to unite in their own interests. But there are many economic, political, and other issues on which the sides have different views. We can see the example of the European Union, which has existed for many years. However, they have disputes on economic, financial issues, on relations with Russia, on the crisis in the Middle East, on relations with the U.S. Some countries are ready to do what the Americans say – Poland. But, for instance, Germany and France are not ready for this. So, this is alright. We preserve the Union, and interest in the Union is vivid, as it meets the national interests of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus. There could be various disputes and discussions, but I don’t think we should make a drama of the situation.
