Shining in Brussels? The Eastern Partnership in Estonia’s Foreign Policy
Shining in Brussels? The Eastern Partnership in Estonia’s Foreign Policy

Summary/Abstract: The article maintains that there exist two competing discourses in explaining Estonia’s foreign policy motivation and priorities in terms of the Eastern Partnership. The article also argues that in the view of Estonia, the EU-centric view is becoming more important than the Russia-centric view, which conceives Estonian foreign policy only in terms of Estonia’s relations to Russia. Estonian foreign policy interests and motives are thus gradually becoming more varied and multi-layered, making a departure from the traditional ‘Russia only’ approach. For Estonia, the Eastern Partnership serves the aim of making the country visible and noticed in Brussels rather than serving the aim of being a containment strategy visà-vis Moscow. Thus, membership of the European Union is becoming increasingly important in Estonian foreign policy. The need to be more visible within the EU policymaking process forces Estonia to search for policy areas where it can claim to have an expert knowledge. One such area is the Eastern Partnership. Estonia has identified the Eastern Partnership as one of its foreign policy priorities and directs half of its development assistance to the Eastern Partnership partner countries.

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