Russia and Asia-Pacific: Diversification or Sinocentrism?

Abstract

In analysing Russia’s policies towards Asia, we need to distinguish several Asias: Central Asia, South Asia and Asia-Pacific. The focus in this chapter is mainly on the last, the Asia-Pacific region (APR), a region undergoing structural changes of global magnitude while Russian policies towards the APR are evolving and remain largely understudied. Several government-sponsored expert reports — including those of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP 2010), the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC 2012), the Valdai Club (Valdai Club 2012) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (2013) — call for a more proactive and more diversified approach to the region in light of the growing importance of China, of the economic dynamism of the wider Asia-Pacific (Kuhrt 2014b, 138–139) and of the US ‘pivot’ (or ‘rebalancing’) announced by the Obama administration. In addition, the development of Russia’s Far Eastern region has remained a major concern of both domestic and foreign policy under Vladimir Putin as well as Dmitry Medvedev.