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Coordination of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt and its implications for Siberia and the Far East
Joint statement on cooperation on the construction of joint Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) project was signed on May 8, 2015. It became a new milestone in Russia-China relations.
EAEU is an integrational project of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz republic and since 2016 – Armenia. SREB is a Chinese initiative, which primarily implies the extension of investment activities in transport and logistics in Eurasian region. Though the EAEU-SREB integration is not so much transit project as co-development project. In this case EAEU provides institutional framework of cooperation, and China – investments. This model will allow not only to overcome potential differences in Central Asia, but also creates preconditions for full-scale economic cooperation in the community of Greater Eurasia, which may become a new center of economic development in the coming decades.