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The Russian Dimension of the Indo-Pacific Narrative
The chapter analyses Russia’s position on the Indo-Pacifi c region, its perception in the Russian expert and political communities, as well as its impact on Russia’s interests. The paper offers insights into Russia’s expert assessments of the Indo-Pacifi c region, presents mainstream points of view from a political and security perspective. The authors trace Russia’s offi cial position on the Indo-Pacifi c region, scrutinizing how top politicians and Russian government agencies relevant to formulating and implementing Russia’s foreign policy, as well as the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, comment on the initiative, its individual components and its likely aftereffects. Arguably, the IPR lacks a consolidating agenda of cooperation, as the IPR was initiated and further developed as an antiChina project. Accounting for the present and prospective infl uence China exerts upon the global politics, economy and security, it is doubtful that many countries will be eager to join the IPR. Anti-Chinese sentiments will hardly become a solid and, more importantly, long-term foundation on which a mega-project can be premised. The paper expands on previous research carried out by Russian scholars on the Indo-Pacifi c region. As the mainstream perception in Russia’s expert and political community, the IndoPacifi c region is a groundless idea since it lacks economic, institutional and normative foundations. The authors conclude that although Russia takes the view that the Indo-Pacifi c region as a multilateral initiative cannot be developed on a long-term and sustainable basis, nevertheless, its potentially negative impact on Russia’s interests, may be considerable.
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