Assessing the opportunities for expanding trade and economic interactions among countries of the Greater Eurasian Partnership

The Greater Eurasian Partnership initiative, announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2015, aims to create a unified integration space in Eurasia. In this regard, assessing the opportunities and constraints for expanding trade and economic interactions within this space is highly relevant. The article presents a comprehensive analysis of trade and economic interactions among countries using cluster analysis tools. The study covers 18 partner countries over the period 2000–2024. A multilevel model was employed as a methodological toolkit, taking into account economic indicators and indices of the countries, as well as results from global rankings. The information base comprised open data from international organizations: UNCTAD, the World Bank, and others. The specificity of interactions among countries within the Greater Eurasian Partnership compared to other integration associations is identified. The scholarly novelty of the work lies in the development of a methodological approach to assessing integration potential based on cluster analysis, which made it possible to identify three country profiles – the core, the periphery, and external partners – and to conduct a quantitative assessment of foreign trade, investment-innovation, and institutional-technological activity of participating countries by calculating an index of foreign economic interaction. Based on the analysis conducted, differentiated strategies for enhancing interaction are proposed in accordance with the three identified country profiles, along with recommendations for increasing the level of interaction and engagement of a number of states using tools for standardizing and harmonizing their activities based on digitalization and the creation of unified platforms, joint investment and infrastructure projects, transport and logistics corridors, and others. The study confirms the need to overcome logistical and institutional constraints within the Greater Eurasian Partnership to realize its integration potential.