Role and Meaning of Foreign Trade Cooperation in the Globalizing World Through the Example of Russia and China

This chapter is devoted to an evaluation of the Russian economy’s readiness for the development of foreign trade cooperation and substantiating the necessity for it between Russia and China. The authors study the dynamics of change in the sectorial structure of the Russian economy and a range of partner countries for international organizations, view the commodity structure for exports and imports in Russia, observe the level of openness in the Russian economy, determine the share of certain countries in Russian foreign trade turnover, and study the dynamics of the main indicators of Russian foreign trade, the dynamics of Russia’s international reserves, and the demographics of organizations’ ownership forms. The authors conduct a SWOT analysis of the Russian economy in modern conditions and a general analysis of foreign trade turnover in Russia, determining the leading commodity group in the country’s exports and imports. This chapter also views Russian foreign trade with its main trading partners, observes the comparative characteristics of Russian commodity turnover with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and non-CIS countries for the leading commodity groups, performs an analysis of the situation in the external sphere, and examines Russian national interests and priorities, the level of development of foreign economic institutes, and the country’s position in the national economy in the context of the “Turn to the East” strategy. The authors prove the necessity for activation of cooperation with developing Asian countries—primarily with China.