People are scrambling around to form trade agreements and blocs. With the UK wanting to leave the EU, Germany and France are pushing for more and more closer ties. On the 55th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty, France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Angela Merkel vowed to promote stronger relations to preserve the EU.
The EU of course, involves most of the European countries, and with so many countries, there have been many dips in member economies.
So while the EU is going through it "self-strengthening" movement, China and Russia are sort of their own bloc also. They have a new axis of convenience just like the EU years ago. Soviet Russia and Communist China were once good allies until the late 50's and 60's when China started hating on them and then Khrushchev pulled out economic aid. This pissed off both sides and it just got worse. The Soviets got even more pissed when the U.S. and China started warming up in the 70's. However, China's Paramount Deng Xiaoping started to rebuild the relationship, and even after the U.S.S.R. broke up, they still worked together. Russia refused sanctions against China and voted with it on numerous issues like the U.S.'s involvements in the Middle East (China and Russia of course want to expand their powers there). And now with Russia's Paramount leader Putin, relations are growing back.
Obviously there is still competition. China's economy has grown from $441 billion versus Russia's $435 billion in 1994 to $9240 billion versus $2096 billion in 2014. Yeah, kind of sucks for Russia. Trade between the two countries is actually pretty limited to just oil and gas and military products form Russia and simple consumer goods from China. Russia wanted to create a "Eurasian Union" in the the Middle East or Central Asia, and now China is stepping in with the BRI. There is a bit of tension with border issues and China's record of copying products. Also, Russia ants to step in to the Far East, but China has made its stance. Russia is not as significant a partner as China is with North Korea, and much less with the other Eastern nations.
In fact, the Czech Republic is torn right now between the EU and China-Russia. One candidate, Zeman, promises better relations with Russia and China, while the other, Drahos, wants more EU integration. Drahos has 26.6%, while Zeman has 38.6%. Zeman represents the conservative side and it's interesting to see how more people favor warmer relations with the Eastern countries. Zeman has been in office since 2013.
It would suck if the EU and North America went to war with Russia and China.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-france/merkel-macron-to-deepen-franco-german-cooperation-strengthen-eu-idUSKBN1FA0GN
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-czech-election-president-poll/czech-presidential-election-headed-for-tight-run-off-vote-poll-idUSKBN1FA0P2
http://www.eu-asiacentre.eu/documents/uploads/pub_179_the_new_russia-china_relations.pdf
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