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The Russia-China Cross-Border Cooperation in XXI Century


Anton K. Tugushev Russian Customs Academy, Vladivostok The development of friendly partnership fully meets the interests of both Russia and China. Vladimir V. Putin It should be mentioned that the prosperity of Russia-China relations is expected not only because of common history, political and economical interests but also because of sharing many kilometers of common border. Apparently, every country has to build adequate system of cooperation with its neighbors as it determines stability in the region. In terms of this fact I consider the topic of Russia-China cross-border cooperation to be rather urgent and important to take into account. Firstly, what do I mean when mentioning this kind of collaboration? To begin with, cross-border cooperation is an essential feature of modern international relations regions as many of the key problems of the neighboring countries take their route directly on the borders. Cross-border cooperation contributes to the solution of certain issues of bilateral relations, including those which is difficult or, for some reason, seems impossible to reach consensus on. Moreover, cross-border cooperation considerably designed to strengthen the historical ties. Speaking about bilateral relations between Russia and China, it should be noted that cross-border cooperation is one of the priorities. The reason is that the Russian Far East and Eastern Siberia used to treat China as a major trade and economic partner for long period. The same situation is observed in the north-eastern provinces of China. Cross-border cooperation covers such important areas as trade, investment, transportation, natural resources, environment, customs affairs, tourism, culture, education, joint ventures, development of transport infrastructure in the border area, improving the mechanisms of bank accounts, insurance and arbitration, law enforcement and migration services, and more. In this article I will do my best to give a brief description of the Russian-Chinese cross-border cooperation in the XXI century. The legal basis of inter-regional cooperation between the two countries is the Agreement between the Governments of Russia and China “On the Leading Principles of Russian-Chinese Committee of Friendship, Peace and Development”, signed in Beijing on 10 November 1997. This committee was established in order to expand and enhance the social basis of equal and trustful Russian-Chinese relations and build strategic interaction in the XXI century. Its main purpose is to make a positive contribution to mutual understanding between Russian and Chinese community, deepen their traditional friendship and strengthen good-neighborly relations in order to promote long-term and effective cooperation in various fields between the two major neighboring countries. The committee has been quite effective, and the further development of friendly relations between the two countries proves this. In 2001, while trying to raise their relations to a qualitatively new and higher level, Russia and China signed the “Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation”. This document highlighted the most important areas of cooperation: global security, trade and economic cooperation, the legal fight against terrorism, protection of rights and freedoms, protection of the environment, etc. Also a special attention in the treaty was given to the development of interaction between the federal (central) legislative and executive authorities of the two countries. Being a result of the deepening of bilateral cooperation in all areas, this treaty does not aim to create an alliance opposing other countries or unions. Instead, it embodies the features of the new world order based on equality, justice and mutual respect. The treaty leaves two parties to be considerably free in their opinions and actions, but puts the strategic partnership of two countries to much higher level. In addition, there are more than one hundred cooperation agreements between the authorities of the administrative-territorial units of different levels. In 2012, more than 70 regions of the Russian Federation had contacts with the provinces of China. Continuing Ant the development of interaction between the Russian federal districts and Chinese regions goes rapidly on. In 2011 Dmitry Medvedev and Hu Jintao signed an agreement on strategic security, which stipulates that both countries should support each other in case of danger, imminent with the United States, the Middle East and European countries. At the same meeting, the Chinese leader expressed support for Russia on the Eastern European missile defense. It is worth mentioning the annual military trainings in frameworks of Russia-China cooperation, where the combined forces of the two countries reflect the expected enemy attack. In addition, Russia is still does not recognize the independence of Taiwan. As it is rather sore issue for China, the support of Russia is very much appreciated by the Chinese government. Many other factors make it possible to claim that the cooperation between the two countries entered a new historical stage in XXI century. You cannot deny that meetings between heads of state of the two countries are used to be carried out on a regular basis-at least three times a year. Moreover, the practice of regular meetings between the two governments exists since 1996. That was the reason to establish a committee, which is responsible for the preparation of regular meetings of heads of government, as well as a number of sectoral subcommittees, the scope of which covers a wide range of areas. The landmark event in Russian-Chinese cross-border relations was the signing the following important agreements on 9 November 2014: · Memorandum on gas supplies from Russia to China via the “western” route, · Framework agreement between “Gazprom” and the China National Petroleum Corporation to supply natural gas from Russia to China, · Memorandum of mutual understanding between “Gazprom” and the China National offshore Oil Corporation, which opened a new page in the history of bilateral energy cooperation. It is expected that from 2018 Russia will supply natural gas to China by the “eastern route”. The volume of deliveries is predicted to increase year by year and eventually reach 38 billion cbm. per year. The latest remarkable steps in enhancing Russia-China cross-border relations occurred in the beginning of may 2015. During the visit of Xi Jinping to Moscow a series of agreements between China and Russia were signed. Particulary, the parties agreed to integrate the “One Belt One road initiative” (“New silk road”) in the Eurasian Economic Union. The document was signed by the heads of state. “We are talking about creating a common economic space on the continent”-said Putin, commenting on the agreement. Russian President expressed confidence that the “Silk Road” and the Eurasian Economic Union will harmoniously complement each other. In addition, an agreement on avoiding double taxation of interest on loans was signed as well. Lat but not least, “RusHydro” and Chinese CTGC (China Three Gorges Corporation) agreed to create a joint venture that will construct flood hydroelectric power station on the Far East. Regarding current unstable situation in the world, I can conclude that China and Russia while being together are able to play role of guarantees of the global peace and prosperity. But the question of what ways and forms of future cooperation the two countries will choose is still on the agenda.