SHANGHAI, November 21. /TASS/. Russia should be part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), whose appearance means that the Western Pacific area is turning into a new zone of economic cooperation, Director of Russian Studies Center under the East China Pedagogical University Feng Shaolei.

"The historical choice of Russia to develop to the East should also probably be associated with different processes of regional cooperation but it will take some time. Gradual opening of the Northern Sea Route and prospects of further development of the Asian Region indicate that a new model of global logistics and trade restructuring is evolving in the long run. Appearance of RCEP shows that the Western Pacific region is gradually turning into a new zone of economic cooperation along the North - South direction. Such colossal process cannot be exposed to geopolitical shocks and cannot but should be intertwined with the process of Russia’s move to the East, and it is further impossible that Russia is not present in this process of regional cooperation," the expert said.

Deepening of the Sino-Russian cooperation should be a significant driver of this process, Feng said.

The RCEP agreement was signed in November 2020 by ASEAN countries and five top trade economic partners of the Association: Japan, Australia, China, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea.