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SR66 Russia-ChinaRelations July2017

Initiative (Seattle: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2017), 151–75.

Simon Denyer, “China Gloats as Europeans Rush to Join Asian Bank,” Washington Post, March 18, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/
world/china-gloats-as-europeans-rush-to-join-asian-bank/2015/03/18/82139f88-9915-4a81-81af-ae6eacf528c7_story.html.
10 
Hillary Rodham Clinton, “Remarks on India and the United States: A Vision for the 21st Century” (speech given at Anna Centenary Library, 
Chennai, July 20, 2011), https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2011/07/168840.htm.
11 
Nadège Rolland, through an analysis of Chinese primary sources, interprets the Belt and Road Initiative as an attempt to “create a 21st-century 
version of a Sinocentric regional order across the Eurasian continent.” Rolland, China’s Eurasian Century? 178.


44
NBR SPECIAL REPORT 
u
JULY 2017
public remarks.
12
Not surprisingly, it is with respect to the implicit dimension of the Belt and Road 
Initiative that countries have differing views and interests.
13
The United States wants to reduce Central Asia’s dependence on Russia, to link the region more 
closely to the democratic market economies of Europe, and to promote democracy and respect for 
human rights. It also believes that tighter trade and transportation links between South Asia and 
Central Asia will be helpful in stabilizing Afghanistan, and it is mindful of Eurasia’s importance 
as an alternative route for logistical support for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. 
Russia still has a proprietary interest in its former territories in Central Asia and wants to 
retain a predominant influence, especially in the security sphere. China, for its part, already plays 
a significant trade and investment role in Central Asia and is keenly interested in the oil and gas 
resources. It has generally respected Russia’s security concerns in the region and has kept its focus 
on trade and energy. As discussed in the previous section, Sino-Russian relations have been friendly 
and cooperative in recent decades, and the two countries have worked well together in the SCO. 
However, in addition to China’s economic interests in Central Asia, Xi’s proposal in May 2014 
for the establishment of a new security and cooperation mechanism in Asia demonstrated that 
Beijing also views the region from a security perspective that is broader than its desire to block 
terrorist elements from infiltrating Xinjiang. Implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative would 
further Beijing’s declared intention to become a major global power.
14
All the elements of a new Great Game are thus present in Central Asia, although the cast 
of players is different. The United States is in large measure a bit player in this scenario. The 
Central Asian countries have welcomed its presence as a means of defending their newly gained 
independence against potential future encroachments by more powerful neighbors such as Russia 
and China. Nevertheless, they are clearheaded about the distinction between countries with 
permanent interests in the region, such as Russia and China, and those like the United States that 
have a significant near-term presence but can cut and run whenever they are unwilling to pay the 
costs of continued involvement. This is not to say that the United States lacks important interests 
in Central Asia. However, these interests are largely derivative of far more important U.S. interests 
with respect to Russia, China, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and even Iran. 
It is difficult under these circumstances for the United States to have a coherent and closely 
integrated policy approach to Central Asia, especially when it must address initiatives by major 
outside powers such as China. Nevertheless, both Washington and Beijing profess their support 
for the goal of fending off a dangerous drift toward a destructive Cold War style of rivalry by 
strengthening areas of cooperation wherever possible. Several measures would increase the 
likelihood that such an approach will be successful:
• The infrastructure needs of Central Asia are greater than the World Bank and the Asian 
Development Bank can meet.
15
The AIIB can play a useful supplemental role. If the United 
12 
Beijing has launched a soft-power, English-language campaign designed to portray the project as nonthreatening—even employing Western 
child actors to sing songs and listen to bedtime stories about the initiative. See “ ‘Belt and Road Bedtime Stories’ Episode 1,” China Daily, May 
8, 2017, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/beltandroadinitiative/2017-05/08/content_29255516.htm; “ ‘Belt and Road Bedtime Stories’ Episode 2,” 

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