Authors: Rezya Agnesica Helena Sihaloho and Muhammad Firmansyah*
The collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s became a turning point for a new order and paradigm in the international political arena after the cold war. The complexity of the international political paradigm is transitioning to a multipolarity order, as seen by the emergence of new emerging powers such as China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Russia. One of the new emerging power countries’ geopolitical competition arenas is the Asia Pacific, which was previously an arena for geopolitical battles between the United States and the Soviet Union. A long history has colored the dynamics of Russian relations in the Asia Pacific Region, and this can be seen through a historical review of the expeditions carried out by Vasily Poyarkov and Khabarov in the 17th century which explored the Pacific Ocean and East Asia, especially in the regions of China and Japan until finally in the 1900s there was a conflict between Russia and China and Japan which became a big paradigm for the presence of significant national interests from Russia in the Asia Pacific (Lim. S, 2013; 4-7).
Concomitant with the times, the potential of the Asia Pacific Region continues to increase, especially in economic development, political complexity, and Asian regional security. This increase has made Russia, under President Vladimir Putin’s leadership, even more, ambitious to increase its geopolitical intensity and vital role in the Asia Pacific region, especially the East Asia region and the ASEAN region. Russia’s ambition under Putin’s leadership is reflected in efforts to increase the intensity of multilateral cooperation, such as within the SCO and ASEAN as an essential part of Russia’s geostrategy in the Asia Pacific region (Lukin. A, 2018), even during his visit to Shanghai, Putin stated his firmness on Russia’s policy towards Asia Pacific through the “Turn to East” strategy which includes economic, political and security interests in the Asia Pacific region. So, this is what makes writing this article to look forward Russia’s strategic interests in the Asia Pacific in the neo-realism paradigm, which refers to the neo-realism view put forward by Richard Sakwa (2008) in his book entitled Putin Russia’s Choice, which includes, Europeanization policies, economization, securitization, normalization, bilateralism, and Russia’s legitimacy as great powerism. However, in the context of Russia’s foreign policy views towards Asia Pacific under Putin’s leadership which will be discussed in this article, the author modifies the neo-realism view put forward by Richard Sakwa by changing the Europeanization view to Asianization and referring to Russia’s strategic interests in the Asia Pacific region under the leadership of Vladimir Putin.
Russia carries out various collaborations in the Asia Pacific, one of which is that the Asia Pacific region is a strategic market for trade in military weapons. In the strategic partnership for the modern defense equipment market, Russia has developed partnership strategies with China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. Russia’s increasingly active military activity in the Asia Pacific is a form of Russia’s strategy to shape the Asia Pacific security architecture and place the security agenda in its foreign policy, or it is called Russia’s Pivot to Asia.
Relations between Russia and Various Countries in the Asia Pacific Region
China is a country that is Russia’s most strategic bilateral cooperation partner in counterbalancing the United States’ geopolitical power in Central Asia (Carrol. W, 2011). The bilateral cooperation relationship built by President Vladimir Putin in the view of neo-realism put forward by Richard Sakwa (2008) is closely related to Russia’s efforts to fulfill its elements of neo-realism, securitization, and state authorization. The formation of the SCO, which Russia and China spearheaded, has the primary motive for security aspects in the Central Asian region, which is vulnerable to acts of terrorism, extremism, and separatism. In addition, the formation of the SCO is a strategy formed by Russia and China to balance the geopolitical power of the United States in the Central Asian region (Carrol. W, 2011). The formation of the SCO is considered to increase Russia’s influence in the geopolitical constellation of the Central Asian region, which has close historical relations. In addition, Bailes et al. (2007) explained that the existence of the SCO succeeded in attracting South Asian and Middle Eastern countries, such as India, Mongolia, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, which was part of Russia’s strategy to reduce the influence and domination of the United States. The series of economic, trade, military and political cooperation built by the two countries is inseparable from the motives and interests of the two countries to become dominant players (great power) in the international political arena, and this has become a series of strategies formed by Moscow-Beijing to create an order multipolar in the international political constellation and opposes the existence of a unipolar order that places the United States as a single power.
Under Putin’s leadership, India and China became an essential part of the Russia Pivot to Asia policy orientation. To spread its power, Russia also formed the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral cooperation to maintain relations between the three countries and as a form of Russian foreign policy to reconstruct the current international system order into multipolarity, which is in line with the realism of Putin’s. They can also be seen through the cooperation between the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the RIC as the basis for the “Asianization” motive in their foreign policy.
Another corporation, Russia and Japan, cooperated in the energy sector through the Yamal Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project, which received a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) of US $ 200 million. Furthermore, in 2017 through JBIC, Japan also provided investment funds for developing Russia’s Far East energy project with an investment value of US$ 1 billion. In 2018, JBIC provided loan assistance of US$ 300 million to help Russia’s economic recovery after economic sanctions imposed by the West (Shagina, 2019). Russia’s foreign policy towards Japan under the leadership of Vladimir Putin increasingly shows a pragmatic relationship amid the dynamics of political relations between the two countries. Amid its tough stance on the Kuril Islands conflict, Russia is trying to keep its geoeconomic maneuvers closer to Russia’s far east region with Japan. As a western alliance, Russia considers that the diplomatic actions taken by Japan and the sanctions imposed by Japan on Russia are not as bad as those carried out by the United States and the European Union, so this is the hope for Russia’s foreign policy to try to build relations with Japan in Western sanctions on the Crimea case (Yennie & Lindgreen, 2018). Also, Putin is trying to attract Japan by demonstrating close relations between Russia and China in the Asia Pacific Region.
Unlike China, India, and Japan, Russia is approaching Korea through sanctions imposed by the United States on North Korea. Putin made it possible to build trilateral relations with South Korea and North Korea amidst the uncertainty of Russia’s relationship with Europe and the West, which has imposed sanctions on Russia since 2014. In addition, South Korea has become an essential part of Russia’s energy trade in the Asia Pacific region, where the value of energy exports from Russia to South Korea reached 137.8 million tons in that period (Dooyum et al., 2020). Russia’s efforts to build strength and influence in the East Asia region are carried out by embracing the Korean Peninsula, where efforts to normalize relations continue to be encouraged in its relations with South Korea and North Korea. The trilateral cooperation framework is an essential foundation for Russia to balance the unilateral actions of the United States regarding the crisis on the Korean Peninsula.
The regional organization that has significant influence in the Asia Pacific Region is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); seeing this potential, Russia joined and became one of the first non-ASEAN countries to recognize the Agreement on Amity and Cooperation in the Southeast Asian region. As time went by, in 2018, Russia and ASEAN officially elevated their dialogue relations to a strategic level. Russia-ASEAN Cooperation is currently within the framework of the Comprehensive Program of Actions (CPA), which promotes cooperation between them and has been in force since 2016. Russia-ASEAN Cooperation occurs in various sectors, such as a) Political and Defense Cooperation through the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), which reflects its strong commitment to promoting regional peace, stability and significant contribution to TAC as a Code of Conduct governing relations between countries; and b) Economic Cooperation through the Senior Economic Officials Meeting (SEOM)-Russia Consultations and ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM)-Russia Consultations.
Conclusion
Based on the brief review above, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, Russia has a big ambition to create a multipolar international political order as the antithesis of the Uni-polarity actions carried out by the United States and other countries. The development of the dynamics of the Asia Pacific region, which has begun to become a pivot for international economic and security politics, has become a big motivation for Russia to place its strategic interests in the Asia Pacific region, and this is demonstrated through Russia’s foreign policy Pivot to Asia. Russia’s foreign policy (Russia’s Pivot to Asia and Russia’s Far East) under the leadership of Vladimir Putin has become a turning point for Russia in building normalization and rearranging their relations in the Asia Pacific region. Thus, Russia is a very active country in orienting bilateral relations and building strategic partnerships with major countries in the Asia Pacific. It is inseparable from Russia’s great interest in reorganizing its power in the Asia Pacific region and trying to balance the power of the United States and China. The “Asianization” steps through various Russian policies reflect the neo-realism view of Vladimir Putin in building the security architecture for the Asia Pacific Region by opposing the unipolarity of the United States.
*Muhamad Firmansyah is a scholar of International Relations graduated from Universitas Pertamina, who is interested in various studies such as political economy, political realism, European and American studies, and other international relations studies.
