Moldovan-U.S. Ties in the Context of Chisinau’s European Integration Process: Missed Opportunities and Possibilities for the Future
Moldovan-U.S. Ties in the Context of Chisinau’s European Integration Process: Missed Opportunities and Possibilities for the Future

Author(s): Cristian Cantir
Subject(s): International relations/trade
Published by: IDIS VIITORUL Institutul pentru Dezoltare şi Initiative Sociale
Summary/Abstract: Since Moldova’s independence, Washington’s diplomacy in Chisinau has followed the same principles applicable to other former USSR members, including rhetorical and material support for the consolidation of democracy, free trade, and territorial integrity. The depth of the relationship has hinged, however, on a complicated interplay between domestic factors, especially in Chisinau, and the relative activism of the three big powers - Washington, Brussels, and Moscow – in the region. In the 1990s, Washington was Moldova’s major connection to the Western world. In the 2000s, the Eastward wave of expansion forced Brussels to develop a clearer foreign policy toward the post-Soviet space. As ties have deepened along that axis, the United States has gradually hitched its foreign policy to the European Union’s efforts in Moldova; Washington and Brussels speak today with a coherent voice in a push to deepen Moldova’s European integration project. U.S.-Moldovan ties are therefore no longer cast in the somewhat vague language of Westernization, but are framed in terms of their relevance for Moldova’s ultimate goal of joining the European Union as a democratic state with a solid market economy and an ability to control its internationally recognized borders. To some extent, this has helped Chisinau because it is now assisted by two major Western powers in what domestic elites have defined as a foreign policy priority.

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