Abstrakt
The paper presents the geoeconomics and geopolitics of the two major trade proposals - Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and One Belt One Road - from the Central European perspective. First, the Visegrad Group is presented as a loose, nevertheless significant, grouping of the four post-communist countries in Central Europe.
Furthermore,it argues that both TTIP and OBOR are manifestations of the geopolitical strategies of respectively the US and the PRC. After examining the European trade strategy, the paper argues that the Visegrad 4 approach towards these proposals reflects the internal political strife rather than a coherent shift in the foreign policy orientation away from the pro-Western orientation.
For the V4 countries, the economic and security ties to Western Europe and the US remain crucial, despite the growing pro-Eastern tendencies in a part of the population and political representation.