New Foreign Policy for Moldova

I ran across a very interesting article about Moldovan foreign policy, particularly concerning the relationship with Russia. The author, Igor Botan, executive director of Association for Participatory Democracy “ADEPT”, attempts to explain why the Moldovan Parliament postponed adoption of the recently reviewed national security and foreign policies, in the context of Russia’s recent political and economic pressures on Moldova. I’d recommend reading the entire article (http://www.e-democracy.md/comments/political/200607312/), but I will briefly present the major ideas.

The Moldovan legislature chose to wait and see “how things go.” This, however, does not translate into an abandonment of its commitments vis-à-vis EU. Neither does the Moldovan President’s attendance of the informal CIS summit that took place in Moscow on 21-22 July. According to Botan, this politically-significant behavior has more to do with keeping a specific segment of the Communist Party’s electorate “happy” concerning Moldovan relationship with Russia. In reality, though, this relationship has been seriously and irreparably damaged. It has been proved that "friendship" with Russia implies very high costs for small countries like Moldova. This problem opens a set of opportunities for Moldova. They should determine its foreign policy according to the following scenario. In the short run, the priority should be successful implementation of the EU-Moldova Action Plan. In the medium run, Moldova should strive to join Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), and in the long term, the priority should be joining EU together with the West Balkan countries.

To me, this sounds like a great plan! What do you think?