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Cooperation between the regions of the Volga Federal District and the territories of the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River of the People’s Republic of China is one of the tools for activating multifaceted Russian-Chinese relations. The creation of a Sino-Russian cooperation mechanism through the Volga — Yangtze Format is of great importance for promoting the development of economic and trade exchanges between the two states, as well as the formation of points of contact in the humanitarian sphere. The similarity of geographical features of these regions is a good basis for the exchange of experience in solving economic, environmental and humanitarian problems of the development of territories located along major waterways.Aim. The purpose of the work is to identify the main vectors of possible development of cooperation and ways to overcome the problems arising in this cooperation by analyzing the intensity of interregional cooperation between Russia and China in the Volga — Yangtze format.Tasks. To analyze program documents and mass-media materials in terms of coverage of the implementation of Sino-Russian projects in the Volga-Yangtze format. To carry out a quantitative analysis of existing joint projects with China in the Volga Federal District. To identify the “growth points” of further economic cooperation between Russia and China in the Volga — Yangtze format.Methods. Empirical research methods, search and analysis of information from mass media, analysis and comparison of data, comparison and generalization were used in the work.Results. By studying the current state of the economic component of Russian-Chinese cooperation in the Volga — Yangtze format, it was possible to identify the difficulties existing in cooperation between the two sides, which could be purposefully solved if the effectiveness of local cooperation was strengthened.Conclusions. At the present stage, there are some obstacles to the effective development of cooperation between the regions of the Volga Federal District and the territories of the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River of the People’s Republic of China in the Volga — Yangtze format, such as difficulties in the macroeconomic situation in Russia, the weakness of the foundation of regional cooperation, the need for an effective coordination mechanism at the regional level, as well as clear schemes of financial and tax support. In addition, based on the geographical features of the regions and the reliance of regional economies on water resources, the development of environmental cooperation in the Volga — Yangtze format would be a progressive format of cooperation.

The Asia-Pacific region today represents an example of deep regional economic integration. This was largely facilitated by the creation of the TRANS-Pacific Partnership. The undisputed advantages of the Trans-Pacific Partnership are the following: opening markets to all member countries, unifying trade rules, removing obstacles to financial cooperation, creating a favorable investment climate and new guarantees to protect small and medium-sized businesses. The analysis of historical stages of creation and development of a such kind of regional association allows us to trace the evolution of economic integration processes and assess the effectiveness and attractiveness of this type of integration. The study of the specifics of the origin of such a large integration Association in Asia is of interest from the point of view of searching for new “growth points” for integration associations in the Eurasian region and in particular in the post-Soviet space.

The autonomy of the Aland Islands within Finland implies a system of self-government in a certain area within the borders of a sovereign state. The Aland Islands have an ethnic and cultural identity and receive powers for internal administration as part of the state. The autonomy of the Islands gives them the ability to solve internal problems, while the state remains responsible for foreign policy, security, etc. All this is made possible by the Aland autonomy Act, which came into force in 1993 and was confirmed by the Finnish Constitution. The act regulates almost all issues of self-government of the Islands. At the same time, the Aland Islands can be classified as a federacy, which indicates a special Federal relationship within a unitary state. Domestic cooperation between the Finnish government and the Aland Islands is based on a formal bilateral non-hierarchical partnership.

The growing integration processes in the Eurasian space confirm the geopolitical place and role of this region in modern international relations. Thus it becomes more important to understand the basic postulates of the Eurasianism concept for the development of national and geopolitical interests of Russia, as well as to study the process of evolution of the main provisions of classical Eurasianism in the foundations of modern Russian neo-Eurasianism, as well as to determine the main stages of this process.The work is based on the analysis of publications of Russian neo-Eurasianism representatives, scientific works of foreign and domestic researchers of this phenomenon in the Russian political discourse.The geopolitical vector of the Eurasian concept is becoming the most relevant at the present stage in the context of increased interest in the geopolitical discourse and research of interaction, the “clash of civilizations”.For the modern Russian political discourse, the Eurasian theme has become one of the most promising foreign policy vectors. At present, we can observe how the theoretical concept of classic Eurasianism is reflected in Russia’s foreign policy. The Eurasian project began to be implemented from theory into political practice.

Although the implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement has changed as a result of the change of the US government, the essence of the TPP agreement has been inherited by the so-called «Comprehensive progressive Trans-Pacific partnership» (CPTPP). The new trade and economic agreement in the TPP paradigm will not only promote trade and economic development and regional integration, but also confirm the existing international division of labor, which will allow the developed countries of the region to consolidate a leading position, dominating the overall regional development, which will lead to the political and economic consequences of «deep integration led by the dominant countries of the region». In this regard, the analysis of China’s position in relation to the TPP is of great interest for understanding China’s vision of further development of regional economic integration in the Asian region.