Abstract
As global demand for energy supplies grew, Russia’s Far East and Eastern Siberia in 2013 acquired ever more importance in the region’s geopolitics. Moscow and Beijing reached accord on joint development of key oil fields in Eastern Siberia. But Moscow used arms sales to Vietnam as part of an apparent effort to thwart Chinese hegemony in the South China Sea. Still, just as Russian comparative economic advantage with Europe and the West has derived primarily from oil and gas, so has integration with Asia hinged on energy.
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