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АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ПРИКЛАДНЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ
JELF53
перспективы сотрудничества россии и китая в рамках брикс
Пу Гунин,
канд. наук, старший преподаватель, Сычуанский университет иностранных языков, Чунцин, Китай [email protected]
Аннотация. По мере развития взаимодействия России и Китая в рамках БРИКС дальнейшее их сотрудничество будет вестись не только на экономическом уровне, а станет расширяться. Внушительные размеры экономик стран БРИКС в будущем позволят им трансформировать экономический рост в политическое влияние. Россия и Китай как самые значительные представители БРИКС являются надежной базой организации, и результаты ее работы во многом зависят от уровня сотрудничества двух стран. Перед ними стоит задача: сделать все, чтобы БРИКС развивались по своему пути. Для этого все участники БРИКС должны точно определить перспективы, принципы и направления сотрудничества. Они должны объединить усилия не только ради экономического развития, но, что важнее, ради совместного стратегического развития стран - участниц БРИКС и всех развивающихся стран в процессе формирования многополярного мира. Работа БРИКС должна сосредоточиться на проблемах глобального, а не регионального уровня. Но чтобы достичь взаимопонимания и нормально взаимодействовать, странам-участницам надо признавать и уважать объективные различия и противоречия со своими соседями по союзу. Это долгий и трудный процесс, требующий развития сотрудничества в области общественных наук, образовании, в формировании новых политических и экономических элит.
Ключевые слова: БРИКС; Россия; Китай; сотрудничество России и Китая; стратегическая коммуникация.
perspectives of cooperation
of russia and china within the brics framework
Pu Gongying,
Ph.D, Lecturer, Sichuan International Studies University,
Chongqing, China
Abstract. The BRICS is going through the transformation from the dialogue forum to the full- fledged mechanism at the moment. The path of development varies so does the national core interests. The BRICS have more cooperation space to explore and there is also a long way forward to shape a collective identity. What the BRICS needs for the common development is solid foundation. Being the most two major members, China and Russia are obliged and capable of pushing the collaboration of the BRICS to more fields and further grounds, utilizing their mutual work as the source. Under the BRICS, this relatively loose mechanism, if Russia and China want to fulfill their own expectations, they have to coordinate with other countries' common interests, by enlarging
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the consensus and collective identity and positively promoting the strategic communication among the BRICS, in order to confirm and develop the strategic targets overlapped. Building the solid organization structure and cooperation mechanism, furthering harmonization and integration of communication platform will be the probable options of the Russia and China to strengthen the communication and cooperation of the BRICS in social and cultural fields.
Keywords: The BRICS; Russia; China; cooperation of Russia and China; strategic communication.
Nowadays, under the development of the multi-polar world and economic globalization, the BRICS is regarded as the representative of the emerging economies and the leader among the developing countries. It has the profound effects on elevating the global economic growth. The BRICS has the strong economic complementarity, similar interests, stable social political environment, grand market and broad prospects of cooperation. Since the occurrence of the international global financial crisis, the BRICS discourse power in the global economy and financial system has been gradually growing, so does their interior cooperation.
brics is under profound transition
Since the first summit held in Ekaterinburg, Russia, BRICS summit has been held for eight times till 2016. The topics range from general international situations, global governance, and sustainable development to the reform of international financial institutions, energy security safety, food security, climate change and so on. Many statements and declarations have been delivered. After all these years, BRICS members have built many institutions like Leaders Meeting, conference of the High Representatives for Security Issues, Foreign Ministers Meeting and meeting of permanent envoys to multilateral organizations. Various actors like think tanks, businesses, banks, have also gained increasing communication and cooperation. Multiple platforms for cooperation are created among governments and business community from bilateral to multilateral arrangements. New Development Bank (NDB), put into operation in the second half of 2015, was the first entity established by BRICS, which is a landmark of construction of BRICS institutions, deepening the cooperation from strategic perspective to pragmatic level. BRICS takes the reform of international financial system as one of its goals, making the BRICS mechanism more stable and substantial.
With the further cooperation among BRICS members, the future development will reach beyond economy. The huge economic size and greater economic weight on world stage will make member states strive for more international politics influence. Many bilateral and multilateral events among member states highlight their geopolitical features. The BRICS group is more than an economic concept. Now enduring a significant transition, it gradually emerges as a full-fledged mechanism featuring both political and economic governance, strategic and pragmatic mode, instead of an economy-oriented and strategy-led dialogue forum. This transition offers BRICS countries both cooperative opportunities and new challenges. Given the considerable convergences in terms of political system and ideology, it would bring difficulties in both building consensus in economy, forging a collective trajectory in global governance and a new world order. In the meantime, BRICS mechanism construction will inevitably cause changes in the international power structure dominated by the West, which means more external obstacles will hinder the internal development. So, during this period, steady development from within become obviously important. In spite of pursuing friendly cooperation with each other on the basis of seeking common ground while reserving differences and mutual understanding and accommodation, it is necessary to explore internal impetus and huge potentiality to advance BRICS cooperation.
THE PRAGMATIC COOPERATION BETWEEN RUssiA AND china MAY BECOME the INTERNAL IMPULsE FOR THE BRICs
transition
Big powers have always been major forces in the development of international relations. As world powers, Russia and China both play significant roles in political, military and economic affairs worldwide. As members of BRICS and leaders of emerging economies, they share the idea of making a multi-polar world. The Sino-Russia partner-
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ship was steadily put forward in recent years and engagement and cooperation between the two got deepened and broadened. China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination sets a good example for cooperation to global powers. Both national strength and ever-closer partnership of the two countries lay a solid foundation for pragmatic cooperation on economy, especially politics that operating intra-BRICS.
China and Russia both identify the BRICS group as one of the most important multilateral platforms. Russia has played a prominent role in transforming the BRICS an abstract notion into a formal organization. Since 2006, Russia took the initiative to institutionalize the concept BRIC. Then, on February 9th, 2013, President Putin signed and affirmed the Concept of Participation of the Russian Federation in BRICS, which set forth that Russia considered its work within BRICS as one of its strategically important foreign policy priorities in the long term. Russia intends to gain national interests, expand its cultural identity, establish new international forms, and strengthen national identity and so on by virtue of BRICS mechanism. On March 13th, 2013, at the academic meeting "BRICS in the Contemporary World: Features and Prospects of Strategic Partnership" held in Moscow Institute of International Relations, Foreign Minister Lavrov said, "Russia's participation in BRICS was one of the significant foreign policies we made, and Russia aims to build a multi-polar world while BRICS as a whole is a strong and steady force" [1]. Considering the worsening relation with the West, Russia adjusts its foreign policy to address the difficulties. It manages to become one main power in the multipolar world order, and construct BRICS collective identity within the existing western-dominated cooperative frameworks. In addition, Russia hopes to rebuild the international rules and norms through BRICS mechanism, which shows its determination to establish a new framework of global governance. Concept of Participation of the Russian Federation in BRICS points out that Russia believes BRICS will become an integral part of the new global governance. Russia commits to make BRICS a brand new international relations institution that won't be featuring East-West or North-South. As for the long-term envisage of BRICS, Russia aims at the group's gradual transformation from a dialogue forum focusing on a limited number of issues into a full-scale mechanism for strategic interaction on key issues in politics and economy.
The BRICS mechanism has been identified by the Eighteenth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party as one of the four platforms for China to "proactively participate in multilateral affairs" [2]. Since the emergence of the BRICS notion, China stood high and saw far, seized the opportunity to shape its own concept on the basis of the notion. BRICS group offers China an effective way for the pursuit of peaceful development and global power status, thus, it is necessary to apply the notion into a real international mechanism. This concept helps shape China's identity actively serving as one of the founding countries of BRICS mechanism. Under the impetus of such concept and identity, China along with Russia, India and Brazil, reaches the consensus of establishing BRIC mechanism. Eventually, the value and significance of BRIC mechanism were shared among member states. Meanwhile, China proactively perfects the guidelines of democratic consultative practice. At the first BRICS summit, then Chinese President Hu Jintao proposed to make BRICS institution a global model featuring mutual respect and equal consultation through dialogue and communication. At the fourth summit, President Hu suggested "equal consultation" as one of the principles and a basic pattern of all BRICS meetings, a proposal welcomed and accepted by all BRICS members [3]. It also reinforced the principles of open and transparent, solidarity and mutual assistance, deepening cooperation and common development member states complying with and "BRICS Spirit" of openness, inclusiveness, cooperation, win-win outcome. China is increasingly integrated into the process of globalization and tends to take a more active part in global governance. Thus, the institution building of BRICS seems to be an integral work for China.
The norms and domains both Russia and China envisaged for BRICS cooperation include solidarity, mutual recognition, and non-interference in each others' internal affairs, without prejudice to the sovereignty of other states, to comply with social norms and to achieve collective interest. All these explicit common desires are to the two countries as well as other member states. It also indicates their intention to reconstruct international rules and norms by virtue of BRICS mechanism. Member states have reached much agreement on collective identity, taken a uniform position on many international issues safeguarding their rights and interests. However,
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the five countries represent widely differing political systems and economic conditions with distinctive core national interests. The cooperation potentiality still left to explore. And there is also a long way forward to shape a collective identity. The cooperation and coordination between China and Russia is the cornerstone in the evolution of BRICS mechanism.
THE PROBABLE COOPERATION OPTIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA UNDER THE BRICS FRAMEWORK
Observing the developing regularities of the international organizations, we can find that the coordination and cooperation among the dominant countries of the organization are the precondition, which helps the organization function well. The international organization will face the crisis of function vacancy if the divergences of the members are unsolved and the common interests are blurred. The operation and development of the BRICS also follow these laws of international organizations. The increasing cooperation and consensus among the BRICS help to solve a series of major international issues and contradictories. When confronting with varies of new challenges, It is necessary to take unified position and action for the future cooperation options. However, the present collaboration of the BRICS is only about construction of Coalition of Issue. The BRICS countries are partners inherently, rather than allies or international organization [4]. BRICS countries come together mainly because of their rapid economic growth. Nevertheless, this organization is not only about economic development, the core part for gathering the BRICS, as the strategic intersection, is in urgent observation and exploration. Presently, since the geographic, historical and political mechanism differences, the internal bilateral relations of these five member states are complicated. Some are alienated while others are intimate, some are in the opposite position while some are in cooperative grounds, and thus these unbalanced bilateral relations bring great obstacles to the strategic reassurance among the BRICS. The BRICS mechanism provides a completely new platform for the five member states engaging in strategic communication, which is the essential requirement of strategic reassurance. Therefore, under this relatively loose mechanism, if Russia and China want to fulfill their own expectations, they have to coordinate with other
countries' common interests, by enlarging the consensus and collective identity and positively promoting the strategic communication among the BRICS, in order to confirm and develop the strategic targets overlapped.
Under the present conditions, none of the member states could go and gain profits "all by itself". Only through the collective works can they become the important participants in the future. There is no zero-sum game among the BRICS countries, which means members should not achieve the maximization of self-interest, more it is about the common interests, or it could lead to prisoner's dilemma. The heterogeneity of the BRICS is the invariant, while the strategic communication is the variable one that works flexibly, which is the essential way to impulse the development of the BRICS mechanism. Strategic communications also alleviate the present mechanism plight which could be the new way out for advancing the institutional building.
If Russia and China want to reinforce the strategic communication among member states, they have to make joint efforts. Currently, the scope of cooperation and the frequency of contact are beyond expectation, but the organization structure is rather weak. BRICS mechanism building is also suffering bottleneck. Meanwhile the slow evolution and loose structure result in the lack of members' strategic communication. Thus, in order to break this vicious circle, the best solution for Russia and China is to make use of the BRICS organizational development and cooperation mechanism.
Being the main force of the BRICS, Russia and China should keep advancing construction and arrangement of permanent organization and other entities. The BRICS Development Bank is a good start. In the future, Russia and China could consider the establishment of the daily administrative agency. Later, they could assign the chair's term of the office in 4 or 5 years, or prolong the term of the rotating presidency accordingly. Balancing the collaborative goals of economy and trade among different member states would benefit the maintenance of policies' stability and continuality. Meanwhile, the construction of the BRICS image and publicity work could be-the future main works of these permanent organizations.
Russia and China could also work together for coordination and integration of the communication stages, improving the strategic com-
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munication efficiency among the member states. Nowadays, there are other two mechanisms that coexist with the BRICS. They are IBSA dialogue forum (India, Brazil, and South Africa) and mechanism of China-Russia-India. In fact, IBSA was founded earlier than the BRICS, but the BRICS enjoys higher the International status and prestige. In order to decrease the "Spaghetti bowl phenomenon" and also for the sake of speaking with one voice, it is appropriate for Russia and China to put these two mechanisms into the frame work of the BRICS.
Meanwhile, both Russia and China are renowned for its culture, which means enhancing communication and cooperation in the "low politics" like social and cultural fields is good for mutual understanding and confidence within the BRICS and it boost the mutual understanding and confidence of these members, consolidating the solid foundation for future works. The operation of the social and humanities exchanges requires the vast manpower and financial resources. Russia and China could take advantage of their cur-
rent cultural international net, intensifying the humanities exchanges and contacting with other member states. They could push more establishments of the BRICS Think Tanks, the BIRCS University Union and other similar platform, making the joint efforts in countries' humanities exchange development.
Like the British scholar Richard Sakwa said "The BRICS is not only the product of the global system after the World War II, but it also emerges as a signal indicating whether the current international order is a well-functioning and. In other words, this pluralism is regarded as the real "globalization in a globalised world", entrusting the world economy the interdependent political life [5]. As the international organization that seeking common grounds while reserving differences, the BRICS needs strong internal impulse for future development. Russia obtains the influential political power while China owns substantial influence on economy, it is quit reasonable that the closer cooperation between Russia and China will boost the cohesion of the BRICS.
ЛИТЕРАТУРА/REFERENCEs
1. БРИКС в современном мире: особенности и перспективы стратегического партнерства [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://mgimo.ru/about/news/departments/236334/ (дата обращения: 10.03.2017).
BRICS in the modern world: features and prospects of strategic partnership [BRIKS v sovremennom mire: osobennosti i perspektivy strategicheskogo partnerstva]. Available at: http://mgimo.ru/about/news/de-partments/236334/ (Accessed 10 March 2017).
2. Ху Цинтао. Доклад на 18-м съезде КП КНР [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://russian.people.com. cn/31521/8023881.html (дата обращения: 10.03.2017).
Hu Cintao. Report at the 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party [Doklad na 18-m s#ezde KP KNR]. Available at: http://russian.people.com.cn/31521/8023881.html (дата обращения: 10.03.2017).
3. Joint Statement of the BRIC Countries' Leaders. Available at: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/ wjdt_665385/2649_665393/t569480.shtml (Accessed: 10 March 2017).
4. Zhao Kejin. The cooperation in the international strategy of China // International Observe, 2014, no. 3, р. 20.
5. Richard Sakwa. The BRICS and the end of "Pan Europe" // Russian Studies, 2015, no. 5 (195), рр. 97-111.
