China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor: Building Infrastructure Connectivity in the Face of Global Challenges

Abstract

Russia’s increasingly tough confrontation with Western countries creates new geopolitical realities for collaboration between participants in the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor. In the context of reformatting foreign economic relations, the Mongolian direction can become the most important route, providing access for Russian goods to international markets and importing necessary products. The authors analyze the formation of a trilateral economic corridor of Russia, Mongolia and China, assess the impact of events in 2020–2022 on the implementation of its priority infrastructure projects. The ambiguous consequences of the pandemic for the railway and road freight transport are noted, the need for significant infrastructure reforms, primarily in the territory of Mongolia, to expand the transit opportunities of the Mongolian direction is emphasized.