I. RUSSIA, EAST ASIA AND ASEAN FACING THE GLOBAL CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY Globalization processes, which reached their peak at the turn of the millennium, cover all spheres of society, including the world economy as a whole, the economy of megaregions, individual states and their integration associations. They are most difficult on the vast Eurasian continent. Here, in a relatively close geographical neighborhood, countries with different levels of development and social life, with different values, ideologies and confessions, with different climatic conditions and demographic trends coexist. The main array of transformational transformations is concentrated at the junction of two parts of the Eurasian continent. The European part of the continent is represented by three groups of countries - developed, transforming and completed transformation due to the completed or near accession to the EU, former Soviet republics that still remain in the poorly structured economic space of the CIS. The Asian part of the region is no less complex: several centers of economic power (China, Japan, India, and ASEAN) have formed here, the region is rapidly strengthening its position in the global economy and has become a leader in terms of economic growth (it accounts for about half of the annual increase in global value added production of $ 2 trillion). Most of the Eurasian countries belong to the so-called peripheral countries (not included in the group of developed countries - members of the OECD). Peripheral countries, despite their best efforts, have failed to significantly reduce the nearly eight-fold gap with developed countries in basic economic indicators.1 A common feature of both peripheral parts of Eurasia is the presence of territories with a low level of economic development and mass poverty. Functioning economic integration groupings (EurAsEC, GUAM, and ASEAN) and bilateral agreements on free and preferential trade in goods and/or services do not yet have the ex ... Read more