Eurasian Economic Union

The **Eurasian Economic Union**, called the **EEU**, is a regional trade union formed originally by Russia and several former Soviet states. The organisation grew to include world powers China and the United Islamic Republic. Today the organisation is predominantly redundant as most of the group's members are also members of the Shanghai Pact, a Russian-led military alliance designed to rival the US-led NATO.

## History

### Expansion and Partitioning of Central Asia

*See Full Article: Central Asian Wars*

The Eurasian Economic Union evolved from an attempt to unite the states of the former Soviet Union into a Russian led trading bloc into a larger trading block that included Russia's allies and Eurasian neighbors the UIR and China, which were major powers on their own. The "Eurasian Big Three", Russia, China and the UIR, partitioned the other members of the EEU in Central Asia during the Central Asian Wars. The Russian led organization became a larger Chinese led one. Nonetheless, the EEU helped coordinate Russian economic projects across the Eurasian landmass including the construction of pipeline infrastructure for Russian natural gas exports. However, much of what was originally envisioned as the EEU, namely the former Soviet Union, was now a part of Russia itself with other portions becoming part of the UIR and China. The EEU was not only a vehicle for Eurasian integration but also a way for the Eurasian Big Three to annex smaller nations.

### Iranian Expansion into Central Asia

Analysts suspected that Vladimir Putin had a strategy in allowing the United Islamic Republic to annex the former Soviet Republics of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, a large portion of the original EEU. Allowing high fertility Muslim former Soviet republics to join the UIR, Putin ensured that Russia would remain a predominantly Orthodox Christian nation. The Orthodox religion was a part of the core Russian identity he sought to protect.

### Chinese Expansion in Central Asia

Putin recognized China's right to annex territory Russia had previously controlled in order to persuade Beijing to join his organization and make it a true counterweight to the west. China annexed Mongolia, a country formerly in the Russian and Soviet spheres of influence, as well as eastern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan which had both been part of the USSR. China attached Mongolia to Inner Mongolia forming the Mongolian Semi-Autonomous Region and included eastern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in an enlarged Xinjiang. All these territories had at one point belonged to the Qung Dynasty at its height. Both of the enlarged semi-autonomous regions served as a source of raw materials and lebensraum for the Chinese.

Putin had no choice but to concede former Soviet territory near Russia's current borders to China due to Beijing's rising economic power and global clout. Supporting Chinese claims to these territories as well as Chinese claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea were also Beijing's term for supporting Russian claims to the rest of Kazakhstan and recognizing Russia's annexation of Ukraine and Belarus. Putin was mostly reluctant to concede Almaty and its surroundings, home to over a million Russian speakers. However, Almaty was close to the former Chinese border and seizing the city was necessary for China to expand further into Central Asia. China gained control over the headquarters of the Eurasian Investment Bank when it's annexed Almaty. China already capitalized many major investment projects throughout the EEU, including projects in Russia.

### The Shanghai Pact

*See: Shanghai Pact*

The Shanghai Pact made the EEU largely redundant in 2017 since it also included China, Russia and the UIR in a supranational body. Some analysts saw the EEU as the economic alliance of the Eurasian powers and the Shanghai Pact as the accompanying military alliance although some of their functions overlapped.

### New Silk Road Project

*See Full Article: New Silk Road Project*

The New Silk Road Project was a project initiated by China in the first half of the 21st century to construct a series of highways, high speed rail lines, bridges, tunnels, canals, ports and airports linking the entire Eurasian land mass through land and sea corridors for travel and trade. Chinese membership in the EEU helped coordinate the construction of infrastructure on a continental scale creating a single economic zone spanning Eurasia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

A centerpiece of the New Silk Road Project and the EEU on land was the Pan-Asian High Speed Rail System. This massive undertaking included a network of primarily Chinese built and financed high speed train lines completed during the 2020s providing continuous 220+ mph service between China, South East Asia, Korea, India, Russia, the UIR, Turkey and Europe. China's state railway monopoly China Railways was responsible for the system. CR collaborated with German multinational Siemens to link the Pan-Asian High Speed Rail System to the European HSR network in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

### Further Expansion

Korea joined the EEU shortly after joining the Shanghai Pact in 2019. Both Greece and Serbia joined the EEU after their ejection from the European Union. They did not immediately join the Shanghai Pact but considered future membership in that organization as well. After the Second Yugoslav War, Albania became an observer in the EEU. Turkey and India also became observers in the organization because of their extensive trade ties with the Eurasian powers. Moscow was particularly eager to deepen its trade ties with both nations, particularly India, a rising world power. Russia also saw the inclusion of India in the EEU as a potential long term counterweight to Chinese economic domination of the Eurasian alliance. However, both India and Turkey were hesitant to commit to full membership despite Russian encouragement, preferring to leverage their status as non-aligned swing states capable of altering the balance of power in Eurasia.

Nonetheless, Russia persuaded the EEU to make Hindi and Turkish official languages of the organization even though India and Turkey only had observer status to encourage the further economic integration of both nations with the other Eurasian powers. Tens of millions of people in the former Pakistan regions of the UIR spoke Urdu which which was mutually intelligible with Hindi. Tens of millions of people in Russia, China and the UIR spoke either Turkish or Turkic languages and could understand standard Istanbuli Turkish. Consequently, making Hindi and Turkish official languages of the EEU also suited those populations as well as India and Turkey proper.

Russia also encouraged the nations of ASEAN to consider joining the EEU in the 2020s and 2030s although territorial disputes with China formed an obstacle for some of them. Nonetheless, the region traded extensively with China and became economically integrated with the rest of Eurasia without formally joining the EEU. In mid-2030, the ASEAN nations ostensibly rejected joining the EEU, opting to make their regional grouping stronger.