THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE EAEU AND VIETNAM AS A FACTOR OF RUSSIAN-VIETNAMESE RELATIONS

The article examines the infl uence of the free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and Vietnam on  Russian-Vietnamese relations. The author considers preconditions for expansion of the EAEU, main steps of negotiations, special features  of the agreement, and results, achieved by present time. The author  pays special attention to evolution of Russian-Vietnamese relations  and also to key factors of Vietnam’s foreign policy. Russian- Vietnamese relations have been developing on the base of the USSR- Vietnam partnership in the Cold War. They were marked by stability  and high level of political contacts, but at the same time scales of economic cooperation were relatively low. Established interaction  between two states was a foundation for the dialogue for the  involvement of Vietnam in Eurasian integration. Vietnam, in turn,  tried to conduct multilateral foreign policy (including the expansion of network of free trade agreements) and so it had positive attitude  for cooperation with Russia in a sphere of Eurasian integration. For  Russia, the EAEU – Vietnam free trade agreement has both political  (expansion of Eurasian integration beyond the Post-Soviet space and rise of prestige of the EAEU) and economic (impact on trade and investment cooperation with the SRV) signifi cance. The agreement entered into force in October 2016 and under its realization some  results have already been made. At the same time the agreement is of compromise and “test” sort. So it’s rather able to make an  immediate breakthrough in Russian-Vietnamese trade and Russian  policy in the Asia-Pacifi c in whole. But this agreement can be an  additional factor for attraction to Vietnam in Russia and enlargement of cooperation with Vietnamese counterparts.

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