This article proves the necessity of international economic integration between Zabaikalsky Krai and cross-border territories of China. The possibility of increasing regional integration between Zabaikalsky Krai and China is based on complementarity and interdependence of the economic potentials of both sides. At the same time, the existing national differences at the level of development of the adjacent socio-economic systems need a common system of goals, balance of priorities in their achievement, which, in its turn, implies a coherent integration policy between two regions – Zabaikalsky Krai and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. However, the lack of unified theoretical and methodological basis for international regional integration restrains the formation of the existing policy. In the context of multiple and ambiguous scientific approaches to international system, it is proposed to consider the «theory of relationships», by Professor Qin Yatsin, as the scientific basis for international regional integration, which proves the need and possibility of harmonizing relationships between participants of international exchanges. From the author's point of view, the practical implementation of the «theory of relations» is possible within the framework of the process approach, which implies the interaction of international integration participants in achieving overall results. The use of the process approach as a methodological basis for regional integration allows to balance the interests of the sides of integration, to identify their priorities. The proposed paradigm of international relations is supplemented by the author’s classification of the processes, the assessment of their impact on the results of integration. It is shown that the interaction of the processes is sufficiently stable, predictable, manageable, hence the use of the process approach in the development of international regional integration seems very promising. Process approach allows to form various scenarios of international integration, based on different composition, results and nature of the interacting processes.