Theory Of Russia's Energy Diplomacy To China

As the foundation and strategic resources, energy particularly the oil called as theblood of the industry is playing a pivotal role on the economic development andnational security. In the world today, energy is influencing the international politicsand tendency of economy, and the issue of the energy security is related to thepeople’s livelihood and national safety. Therefore the energy security has become aglobal problem. As obtaining the overseas energy by means of diplomacy, energydiplomacy emerged.Energy diplomacy is a series of diplomatic activities carried out by a country toensure its energy security, pursue political economic interests and maximize nationalinterests. As an important part of the diplomatic activities, the energy diplomacy ofone country must obey the national overall diplomatic policy, meanwhile it need toprovide assurance for the national energy security as one of the important means toserve the national interests. Thus energy diplomacy is of prime importance to thenational security even the national overall strategy.With abundant energy resources, Russia made the achievement of the shift fromthe economic crisis to the continuous development driven by the energy diplomacyand the increasing international high price of oil. Using the energy as weapons, Russiaconstantly expanded diplomatic space, and gradually transferred the energy strengthsinto international political impact. For energy-rich Russia, China is the most stable,vastest and promising market. As the economic development, Chinese demand for theenergy is growing up rapidly. Russia and China are highly complementary in energyfiles, closed tied in politics, widely consensus in strategic interests and with similarstandpoint at the international and regional stability and development issues. Russiaexpects to solve the national security, great power status, economic development et al.by means of energy diplomacy, and China is able to provide great support andassistance. Hence, actively expanding Chinese market is the major direction of Russia’s energy diplomacy.Carrying out energy diplomacy towards China is essential to revive Russia’sgreat power status, while we cannot deny that there exist several restricted factorsduring the process. How to solve these problems are of great importance to thesuccessful performing of Russia’s energy diplomacy. This paper started with thereasons for Russia’s energy diplomacy towards China, highlighted the currentsituation of the cooperation between Russia and China, the characteristics of Russia’senergy diplomacy and corresponding effects and limitations, made prospects ofRussia-China energy cooperation.Studies on Russia’s energy diplomacy towards China can be helpful to improveflexibility of our government to cope with the energy crisis, meanwhile to predict thefuture development direction of Russia-China energy cooperation and Russia’s energydiplomacy such that ensure our national energy security. These studies would beimportant for Chinese economic development and our diplomatic policy-making toRussia.