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Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
in Moscow, needs a concrete mechanism to integrate development strategies of the two countries.
It is assumed that the TEPR would be realized by an international consortium including corpo-
rations, investment institutions, and regional administrations. The anti-Russian sanctions would
not apply to such a consortium as it would be an international legal entity. The consortium would
be headed by a strategic planning body of a new type, in which leading Russian schools of sci-
entific management would be represented. Bonds would be issued to co-fund the TEPR pro-
gram, and regional administrations would allot lands for the TEPR to cross.
The TEPR program would encompass a diversity of investment projects, which would be un-
feasible without long-term low-interest loan mechanisms that exist in the EAEU and China.
The Trans-Eurasian Belt Development (TEPR) program may become part of the mechanism
to integrate development strategies of Russia and China.
All this means a major role for the proposed Economic Belt of the Silk Road of Innovations -
21st Century as a new platform for bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the integration of
the EAEU with the Silk Road Economic Belt, a program propounded in the Joint Statement of
the Russian Federation and the Chinese People's Republic.
Sergey Bazdnikin, Deputy Director, Foreign Policy Plan-
ning Department, RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Earlier on, an opinion was expressed here that the
world is getting harsher and less predictable. I agree
that the world is undergoing large-scale changes that
are highly dynamic and affect all spheres of interna-
tional relations. The world is changing faster than one
can trace. This means that any forecast - and it's never
worth making forecasts anyway - is a theoretical exer-
cise pure and simple. There are so many players in the international arena, such contradictory
trends and such turbulent processes, that it results in a variety of developments that grows in
geometric progression.
It is obvious that the world's conflict potential is growing. It is just as obvious to us that there
still is a lot of uncertainty about global affairs, and, moreover, world history is at a turning point
today, which makes the situation more complicated. Most likely - many experts take this view,
by the way - we stand on the threshold of global changes that we still can't fathom completely.
It can hardly be disputed that capitalism has reached certain limits in its development and needs
some deep-going transformations.
In this connection, I want to say that we - I mean the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - have no
doubt that it is essential to identify key trends of global development because, regardless of what
turns history takes, it is these trends that will set the stage. We have formulated our views clearly
enough. They are reflected in Russia's National Security Strategy and Foreign Policy Concept.
The latter is adopted once every four years.
Surely, the Middle East and North Africa are experiencing serious upheavals caused by ethnic
and religious conflicts and an unprecedented outbreak of terrorism and extremism.
We see the potential further degradation of the situation as an extremely serious threat to inter-
national stability and security, and this is precisely the reason why we say that we are open to co-
operating on Syria with our Western partners despite everything.