Future Trajectories of the Russia-China Relationship - FIIA - Finnish Institute of International Affairs

With converging interests in their immediate neighborhood, dissatisfaction with real or perceived Western constraints on their geopolitical aspirations, and a common desire to create a more multi-polar world, the relationship between Beijing and Moscow has reassumed prominence in recent years. Today China is Russia’s top trading partner, and both Beijing and Moscow are involved in regional institutions and groupings, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and BRICS, that exist in parallel to, but are not integrated with, U.S.-led institutions. Since 2014 when sanctions precluded Western financing of some of Russia’s key energy, infrastructure and transportation projects, China has become increasingly involved in these sectors of the Russian economy.

At the same time, historical complexities, power asymmetries and potential frictions in Sino-Russian relations have prompted questions about the states’ cooperation. What are the Russian national security establishment’s key priorities vis-à-vis China the run-up to what is likely to be President Putin’s fourth presidential term? What role will Russia play in China’s Belt and Road Initiative? How does this situation look from Washington and what are the implications for Europe and the West in general?

Programme:

Welcoming remarks: Teija Tiilikainen, Director, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs

Speakers:
Paul Stronski, Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of forthcoming study on the Russian-Chinese relationship in Central Asia, the Russian Far East and Arctic.

Alexander Gabuev, Chair of the Russia in Asia Program, Carnegie Moscow Center

Xin Zhang, Assistant Professor, School of Advanced International and Area Studies, East China Normal University

Comments: Jyrki Kallio, Senior Research Fellow, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs

Chair: Arkady Moshes, Programme Director, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs

For further information, please contact: Kukka-Maria Kovsky,
Tel. +358 9 432 7718, kukka-maria.kovsky@fiia.fi

Speakers

Teija Tiilikainen

Director, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs

Paul Stronski

Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Alexander Gabuev

Chair of the Russia in Asia Program, Carnegie Moscow Center

Xin Zhang

Assistant Professor, School of Advanced International and Area Studies, East China Normal University

Jyrki Kallio

Senior Research Fellow, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs

Puheenjohtaja

Arkady Moshes

Programme Director

Presentation

Arkady Moshes is Programme Director for the Russia, EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood and Eurasia research programme. He is also a member of the Programme on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia) at George Washington University. Moshes’ areas of expertise include Russian foreign policy, European-Russian relations as well as internal and foreign policy of Ukraine and Belarus. He received his Ph.D in history of international relations from the Russian Academy of Sciences (1992).

Before moving to Finland in 2002, he had been working in the Institute of Europe in Moscow since 1988. From 2008 to 2015 he was an Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at Chatham House. From 2017 to 2022 he was a member of EU-Russia Expert Network (EUREN). He has been a visiting scholar at the Danish Institute for International Studies (2002) and the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University (2016), a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2007) and a regular guest lecturer at the NATO Defence College (2005-10, 2013-15) and Geneva Center for Security Policy (1998-2022).

Arkady Moshes has authored a large number of academic and analytical publications and is a frequent media commentator.

He co-edited “A Slavic Triangle? Present and Future Relations Between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus” (Swedish National Defence College, 2002), “Russia as a Network State: What Works in Russia When State Institutions Do Not” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), “What has remained of the USSR: Exploring the erosion of the post-Soviet space” (FIIA, 2019) and “Russian Policy toward Belarus after 2020 At a Turning Point?” (Lexington Books, 2023) and contributed articles to, among others, Security Dialogue, International Affairs, Post-Soviet Affairs and Demokratizatsiya.

Speakers

Puheenjohtaja

Event invitations