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ENGAGING RUSSIA IN ASIA PACIFIC. Edited by Watanabe Koji. New York:Japan Center for International Exchange. 2000. 190 p. (B&W photos.) US$25. 00, paper ISBN 4-8890 7-029-X.
This book may be considered as a tangible contribution to numerous academic efforts accentuating the desirability of Russia's cooperation with Asia Pacific, which also attempts to explain why such cooperation has not yet materialized. The idea to evaluate the problem exclusively from the Asian perspective (contributors hail from Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore) seems to be rather pertinent and promising. Asian countries are the core of the region and their relationship with Russia may be decisive for its "Pacific destiny."
The monograph is divided into two main parts focusing respectively on Russia's presence in Northeast and Southeast Asia and various aspects of multilateral and bilateral ties. Some precise and explicit observations were made in the book, namely, on the concept of "expediency" dominating Russia's and South Korea's policies of bilateral cooperation and on psychological barriers impeding further rapprochement between Moscow and Seoul, as well as on "security concerns" arising in the context of ASEAN-- Russia ties, on Singapore's and Russia's approaches, etc.
Analysis of Russo-Chinese relations may seem to be rather superficial. There is a somewhat emphatic description of the commonality of views of the two powers and not much intention to ponder upon certain controversial issues pertaining to Chinese cultural, economic and social expansion in the Russian Far East (RFE). This expansion (quite positive per se) evokes a feeling of uneasiness amongst the small Russian Far Eastern community (hardly exceeding 7 millions) scattered over the vast area, which remains underpopulated, underdeveloped and therefore vulnerable for being placed side by side with the Asian giant (however friendly the latter might be). For today's Russia, that is one of the most acute problems and it cannot be reduced to some nationalistic aspirations of the Russian elite or the necessity to regulate the migrants' flow.
It is true that Beijing has not taken advantage "of Russia's internal crises and difficulties to exert influence and pressure on it," and Russia has likewise "not colluded with the West" to launch an attack on China "concerning socalled human rights and democracy." One can be easily moved by such manifestations of mutual...