In recent years, we have been witnessing significant changes in the foreign policy strategy of PRC, the
interests of which are reaching far beyond the Asia-Pacific region. For instance, the One Belt,
One Road global initiative encompasses more than 70 countries. Beijing is showing interest in
Central Asia and Western Europe, the Balkan and Baltic states, it is intensifying its presence in Africa, South-Eastern Asia and Latin America, the country is set on exploring and managing the Artic.
Europe is the priority interest for PRC. Sum total of Chinese investment into the countries
of Europe over the past 10 years made up 272 billion euro and cooperation encompasses a
variety of areas – from infrastructure projects to trade, joint efforts in fight against terrorism and
Islamic extremism as well as energy (including renewable energy sources), military industry and
space, construction and chemical industry, food technology etc.
PRC has increasing interest in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which may
be explained by the desire to strengthen the infrastructure potential of One Belt, One Road
initiative as well as Eastern Partnership countries (for instance, Georgia is gradually turning into
transitory hub for the Chinese products to Europe and back). Causing interest is also the 16+1
format, which unites China with 16 countries of the Central-Eastern Europe, Baltic and Balkan
states. Beijing is also paying its attention to Ukraine. In particular, in December 2017 China and Ukraine
approved action plan which foresees attraction 7 billion dollars of Chinese investment to Ukraine,
which may be perceived as a sign of trust China’s trust, regardless of the specificity of political and economic situation caused by Russian aggression.
In this respect, we have to agree with the Ukrainian diplomat and scholar Serhii Korsunskyi, Director
of Hennadiy Udovenko Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, “We need
to build multilateral diplomacy; we cannot focus on one direction only. The USA and the European
Union are the key areas but we must work with China in such a way that they are interested in the
swiftest resolution of our problems with Russia.
” Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyze the state and dynamics of political and economic relations between Ukraine and PRC, reveal promising directions of cooperation, suggest recommendations regarding the improvement
of bilateral cooperation and the possibilities for Ukraine to participate in multilateral cooperation
formats with China.