Economic Integration in East Asia: Challenges for the Russian Far East

The foreign economic relations of the Russian Far East are oriented to the Asia-Pacific region in general and East Asia in particular due to its geographical proximity. Nowadays East Asia is one of the world politics centers and it shows high growth rates of GDP, trade and investment flows. The region is also characterized by active development of economic integration processes. At the same time, the Russian Far East can develop economic cooperation with regional partners only at the subnational level. FTA agreements and other forms of economic integration are the prerogative of the federal government. And the result of the Russian foreign economic policy in the region is very modest: it includes only APEC and Viet Nam - Eurasian Economic Union FTA. It should be mentioned that signing FTA agreements should not become the end purpose for Russia's participation in the "integration game". Elimination of custom duties without integration of the Russian companies into global and regional production networks will increase trade flows, however, it will only reinforce the current role of Russia and its Far East as a supplier of natural resources to the region.