The Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt: Players, Interests and Implementation Challenges

In May 2015, Russia and China coordinated their activities in Central Asia and decided to connect the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and the Silk Road Economic Belt. This decision seemed to prevent unnecessary competition between these two basically non-conflicting projects. However, in time there appeared a lack of understanding of this combined endeavour and its implementation mechanisms. It is still unclear how further dialogue between the EEU and the Silk Road will proceed. There is no consensus on the participation of the EEU members and the Eurasian Economic Commission. Without a clear strategy, the Russian-Chinese agreement has started to lose momentum. Some non-regional players can benefit from this - of course, in their own interests. This articles attempt to explain the threats posed by delay and inaction in the combined EEU and Silk Road projects, and to describe the potential benefits of actively implementing the combination. It then proposes a concrete format for such a combination, its priority areas, as well as mechanisms for implementation.