The conflict in Ukraine has forced Poland to an in-depth analysis of priorities in its policy towards the East – comments dr Małgorzata Bonikowska, president of CIR and Michał Szczygielski, analyst at CIR. Initiated by Warsaw in 2009, the Eastern Partnership is currently experiencing a crisis as a result of Moscow’s decisive actions, where it seeks to maintain its influence in the area. Poland’s answer should be a correction to the Partnership’s assumptions and an East-West mediation proposal, in the long term leading to improve the state of our relations with Russia. The priorities of the Polish Eastern policy in the context of the developments in Ukraine seem to be clear – among them are the desire to increase the presence of NATO in Central Europe and the Baltic countries.

Moreover, among the priorities is also promoting initiatives aimed at the deterrence of Russia (including economic sanctions) as well as providing support to Kyiv in its political and economic transformation. However, the currently dominant in Poland way of defining national interest as an opposition to Moscow’s actions cannot be short-sighted.

The full comment is available in Polish below: {phocadownload view=file|id=504|target=s}