But, today, Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok suddenly becomes a part of a powerful drive of dozens of nations of global South towards a vastly improved global economic system.
Improved system obviously means business without trade wars, tariffs and sanctions pressure. But then, at first all kind of highly-placed and very diplomatic folks have been signing declarations about that, year after year, not to mention summits like G20, where the global South tried to chastise the global North, without any visible result. So what has changed, by now?
The general atmosphere is different, that’s the answer. If you link that purely business Vladivostok event to a powerful military parade in Beijing last Wednesday, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization annual forum in Tianjin a couple of days before that, you immediately see the big picture. Over 70 almost the same nations have been represented at all the three events, with some important people moving from Tianjin to Beijing to Vladivostok. But what’s more important, is accelerating business activity of the same nations in the region, which says more than all the declarations.
Vladivostok is mostly about business. On the eve of the forum its organizers have announced the international investment projects to be signed in several areas, namely “in construction, logistics, production and tourism”. Most of them will be based in Special Economic Zones (SEZ) of that region of Russia, facing the Pacific. Such zones are to start working on January 1, 2026. To add, Vladivostok is a free port even today, with bonded warehouses and all the rest of paraphernalia of such harbors.
It’s not only about trade with China, though you may walk to the Chinese border from Vladivostok (if you can cover about 200 kilometers on foot). This year, the largest business delegations to the forum are to be from Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Bulgaria, not to mention China, of course. Indians are invariably present in Vladivostok, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending one of the previous EEFs in 2019.
So, all in all, it is a success. Maybe the reason is the same that has brought yet another success, that is, the SCO summit only days before, with, to repeat, more or less the same nations represented. And that reason sounds rather simple: the trade and industries are accelerating across the vast spaces of Eurasia. Success breeds more success, it’s that simple.
Look at the SCO trade and economy in general. The previous year has given us the combined GNP growth of the SCO nations, India included, exceeding 5 per cent, with industrial output over 4.6 per cent, which is way above the similar results of the West. We are, simply speaking, a zone of collective growth, while the West is not even remotely that.
There are, of course, many reasons for such growth, but one of them is accelerating trade of the SCO nations with each other. In the first 20 years since its establishment, the total trade value of SCO member states increased nearly 100-fold, while their share of global trade rose from 5.4 percent in 2001 to 17.5 percent in 2020, demonstrating growing influence, according to a trade development report released in 2022.
To think that a quarter of a century ago SCO has been designed as a modest and purely regional grouping for several Central Asian nations that emerged after the split of the Soviet Union. They had to develop economic ties with each other, and mind their common security, too. Two large bordering nations, Russia and China, became natural members of that grouping.
Now there are ten SCO members, India, Iran and others included, with a vast group of “partners” and ten other nations willing to become such partners, too. Why so? Simply because the region we are talking about began to expand. Economic ties that gradually evolved have stretched to the shores of Africa or Indian Ocean, or to South East Asia. So more and more of the political leaders of nations of the mentioned territory find it alluring to get together and discuss the further integration of that huge and successful territory.
And that’s not all there is. There is also BRICS. It’s funny how two organizations, namely the SCO and BRICS, converge and even mix up. To think of it, BRICS today is the same SCO, with addition of Africa and Latin America. In any case BRICS is a success, too, if, again, you measure that success by the growing mutual trade and the rest of business.
There is a kind of discussion going on in media all over the world, about the nature of the evolving trends. What are we, the global South, actually do at all kind of venues, be it a diplomatic gathering or a business forum, like the one in Vladivostok? Do we want to destroy the West? Do we want to build up our own alternative world next to the Western one, like it was in the times of the Cold War? Not in the least. We only want to do what we like without being harassed by sanctions or politically motivated tariffs. But when we do it, and when we convene forums and summits where we discuss convergence and divergence of our interests, it looks like a miracle these days.
Convergence happens in most unexpected areas sometimes. There was a Moscow fashion week recently, and one of the shows at it have been organized… not by SCO, by BRICKS, but then what’s the difference. In any case, there were people from 65 nations there, including India, the Emirates, Egypt, Malaysia, people from Africa and Latin America – though some came from the US, Spain, and Italy. In the end, the participants have learned that it is possible and even profitable to compete with global fashion brands, and that what we have here is yet another area of potential mutual growth.
Of course the political summits have in a way contributed to that momentum, as they have contributed to the future success of the deals to be signed in Vladivostok these days. As an example, everyone knows, after the summit in Tianjin, that the Russian Far East and the vast area around it will have more stable gas supplies, the Chinese airliners will get Russian engines soon, and, generally, foundation for regional growth is getting stronger.
And one more thing. This is the 10th annual EEF. The first one happened one year after the war of sanctions started against Russia. The beginning of EEFs were rather modest at first, but the forum is one of regional drivers of growth by now. So here we have the same story that SCO or BRICKS are telling us.
Dmitry Kosyrev is a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com