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Why Russia might be warming to China’s belt and road plans in Central Asia
- Russian official’s comments on integrating belt and road with Eurasian bloc signal fresh interest in Chinese strategy Moscow once viewed as challenge
- Analysts say working with Beijing could help Russia regain trust of neighbouring countries worried about becoming the ‘next Ukraine’
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Hayley Wongin Beijing
When Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative over a decade ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin was not enthusiastic about the massive infrastructure drive moving into his country’s “backyard”.
Moscow saw landlocked former Soviet countries in Central Asia, such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as within its orbit and the belt and road as a challenge to its dominance.
But a speech by a senior Russian official last week signalled just how much has changed in the decade since.
Addressing the Boao Forum for Asia in the Chinese island province of Hainan, Russian deputy prime minister Alexey Overchuk said the Kremlin and Beijing had discussed the possibility of “improving connectivity” between the initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led effort to create an EU-like common market.
Analysts said if the two regional powers could come together and overcome the earlier mutual mistrust, the region could become more connected in trade and transport than ever before. Nevertheless, hurdles remain, they say.
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