China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union

Abstract This article focuses on the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union ( EAEU ) and China’s Belt and Road Initiative ( BRI ). It argues that EAEU members and China need each other to implement their two major initiatives. As a result of the conjunction of the EAEU and BRI , China and the EAEU states linked their transportation infrastructure, which provided them opportunities for modernization and growth. The EAEU member states established contacts with the second economy of the world at a multilateral level as well. The Agreement on Economic and Trade Cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union and Its Member States, of the One Part, and the People’s Republic of China, of the other Part , signed in 2018, which came into force in 2019, provided added impetus to strengthen economic relations and created a legal platform for the further harmonization of the BRI with the EAEU . This article also argues that the conjunction of the EAEU and BRI has a political meaning as well. It means that in post-Soviet Eurasia, Russia and China have chosen cooperation over competition, as they are the main initiators of these economic and political integration initiatives. It explains that it fully coincides with the national interests of other members of the EAEU , such as Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, as these states can cooperate with both Russia and China without choosing any side. This contribution concludes that cooperation between China and the EAEU in post-Soviet Eurasia improves security level and contributes to peaceful, cooperative development.