Eurasian Economic Union and Integration Process in the Asia-Pacific

Abstract

In 2015, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus formed the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), later joined by Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. The Eurasian Economic Commission (EAEC), one of the key supranational bodies of the Union, received the mandate to conduct all negotiations on trade liberalization, including negotiations on FTAs with other countries, became the main operator of the conjunction of EAEU and One belt One road Initiative (OBOR), – and, thus, an important agent of promoting the interests of member states in the Asia-Pacific region. Moreover, in the future we can expect the expansion of the Commission’s mandate to other areas of international cooperation affecting the economic interests of Russia. In the context of the policy of the Turning to the East that Russia has pursued in recent years, such a redistribution of roles between the national and supranational levels requires further study. However, due to the young age of the association, both in the Russian and foreign literature, we can find relatively few studies on the international role of the EAEU and, in particular, of the EAEC. This article analyzes the Commission’s international tracks with Asian countries that are currently open and attempts to study other formats of international interaction that might involve the Commission in the future according to its current mandate. The results of the study indicate that bilateral tracks remain the dominant ones for the Commission, and the transition to multilateral negotiations within the EAEU-ASEAN or EAEU-RSEP formats can only occur in the medium term. This conclusion has been confirmed by the analysis of open information about the negotiations of the Commission, and a series of expert interviews conducted during the research.