The Сooperation Between Russia and China in the Field of Economy and Security at the Present Stage: Development Prospects and Challenges

This paper explores the strengthening cooperation between Russia and China over the span of the recent years in the areas of economy, security and political partnership, investment and trade opportunities, as well as actions taken to protect international peace and security. The author analyses the results of “One Belt, One Road” initiative on the future relationship between the countries in question. International factors affecting all spheres of this bilateral cooperation have also been taken into account. This topic has been analyzed by many Russians and foreign scholars. While some of them (Lukin, 2013; Tang & Cheng, 2017) had explored the background of the relations between the two countries, other researchers (Gong, Song, & Liu, 2015; Luzianin, 2018) have focused on Russia-Chinese trade cooperation in the recent years, identified the most noticeable changes, and singled out possible benefits for both sides and weaknesses of the implemented policy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze prospects and challenges of the cooperation between Russia and China in the spheres of the economy and security and to identify scenarios for eventual bilateral relationship. The used methods include content and quantitative data analysis, primary and secondary data collection, as well as scenario planning method. The results of the paper may reveal the most probable outcomes of recent Russian-Chinese economic and political cooperation and lay the foundation for a theoretical base for the forthcoming research.