Issue A flexible two-track Eurasia strategy that separates China and Russia policy from regional cooperation

Summary

The report argues that Korea should avoid judging every issue by values alone and instead pursue interest-based pragmatic diplomacy that weighs the geopolitical and geoeconomic perceptions of its neighbours. Because China and Russia dominate northern Eurasia while other states carry far less political and economic weight, it recommends a two-track approach: independent China and Russia strategies alongside a region-wide New Eurasia Strategy. The strategy toward the two powers should be tied to Korea's global strategy and to the future of the Korean Peninsula including North Korea, while the regional track should combine bilateral cooperation with emerging states with an integration strategy for the whole space. Since neither a values-only nor a purely transactional approach works, the authors favour a neorealist flexibility that fuses or separates bilateral issues case by case and combines bilateral ties with multilateral frameworks. Where allies and neighbouring states clash, Korea should at times mediate and act as a bridge, which the report calls the most practical and balanced way to defend and maximize national interests.