China, being the world’s leading economy, is already today Russia’s largest trading partner. Complementarity of the countries’ economies, the common border, large-scale transport projects, cooperation in key sectors, participation in BRICS and SCO — these and other factors serve as major drivers for all existing and new bilateral initiatives. The potential of these relationships is to a large extent determined by their content and current trends.

Italy’s officially joining the China-led Belt and Road Initiative sparked a fierce debate. By analysing five fields of cooperation, the volume sheds light on whether the bilateral agreement has brought about an intensification of bilateral collaboration as wished by the Italian government as the time and whether the concerns around it have materialized.