The Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) held a roundtable on the theme “The Arctic Dimension of Eurasian Integration” on 19 April 2016. The key speech was delivered by Professor Guo Peiqing, the Executive Director of the Institute of Polar Law and Policy of the Ocean University of China. The speech focused on China’s interests and the foundations of its strategy in the Arctic as well as the role of the Arctic region in the implementation of integration initiatives in Eurasia.

The roundtable was also attended by Andrey Zagorsky, the Head of the Department for Disarmament and Conflict Resolution Studies of the Center for International Security (IMEMO) of the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a member of the RIAC; Alexander Pilyasov, director of the Center of the North and Arctic Economy of the Council for the Study of Productive Forces; Na Chuanlin, a professor at the Shanghai International Studies University; Andrei Todorov, a senior research fellow at the Economic Research Centre of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies; Ivan Panichkin, a lecturer in the Department of Legal Regulation of Fuel and Energy at Moscow State Institute of International Relations under the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Vyacheslav Sutyrin, a senior research fellow at the Faculty of Political Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Natalya Klimenko, a research officer at the Second European Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Lyudmila Filippova, the RIAC programme manager. The discussion moderator was RIAC Deputy Programme Director Timur Makhmutov.

As part of the discussion, representatives of the Russian and Chinese expert community considered the prospects for China’s cooperation with Arctic governments, in particular Russia, as well as the economic potential of developing Arctic resources and the Northern Sea Route.