The goals and targets set out at the Millennium Development Summit in April 2000 set out to halve the proportion of people without access to safe water and sanitation by 2015. Speaking at this summit of leaders of almost all countries of the world, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the problem of providing the world's population with water resources one of the most important tasks of the world community in the Millennium Report. The growth of the world's population, inefficient use of water resources for economic development and environmental pollution not only significantly complicate the solution of this problem, but also exacerbate the shortage of fresh water in a number of countries, which has already become one of the biggest threats to their economic security. The situation is so serious that in some regions the situation is fraught with armed conflict.* S. G. LUZYANIN Doctor of Historical Sciences E. I. SAFRONOVA Candidate of Economic Sciences water shortage Keywords:, China, Russia, Kazakhstan China is one of the East Asian countries that are capable of exerting and are already exerting a significant influence on neighboring countries in the field of transboundary water use. The water supply of a number of territories of the Russian Federation, primarily the Omsk and Tyumen regions, largely depends on China, since the Irtysh River, whose upper reaches are located in the PRC, is the largest tributary of the Russian Ob River. The Far Eastern region of Russia, primarily the Khabarovsk Territory, also falls within the sphere of Chinese water influence, due to the fact that part of the Russian-Chinese border runs along the Amur River, and the Chinese Sungari River (Sunghuajiang) is its most full-flowing tributary. The Tumannaya River also flows through the territory of the People's Republic of China. Problems related to the state and division of waters of transboundary rivers are directly related not only to ensuring water supply in Russia, China, Kazakhstan ... Read more