What is ‘Sinatra Doctrine’?

“Sinatra Doctrine” has been accepted by the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) member countries as a counter to the increasing aggressiveness of China to undermine the European Union’s unity through the divide and rule policy.

The Two Pillar of Sinatra Doctrine

• Continuing cooperation with China in order to address the global challenges like COVID-19, regional conflicts and climate change
• Strengthening European Union’s strategic sovereignty by protecting its economy’s technological sectors.

A Look At Background

• Chinese policy to undermine the unity of the European unity was fueled by using the regional platform with an aim to get the political favors in the exchange for economic benefits.
• China’s credit-based offer in a neo-colonial fashion turned out to be ill-suited for European Union’s CEE members. Further, around 8.6 billion euros investment by China in 12 EU member states participating in “17+1 initiative” for the period from 2010 to 2019.
• On the other hand, in Netherlands and Finland for the period from 2010 to 2019 the Chinese investment was 10.2 billion euros and 12 billion euros respectively. The mismatch in the economic promises and outcome by Beijing forced members of CEE to adopt the Sinatra Doctrine.

CEE Countries

CEE stands for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) member countries they are EU member states which were part of the former Eastern bloc. The CEE member countries are:

• Bosnia
• Herzegovina
• Albania
• Croatia
• Estonia
• Bulgaria
• The Czech Republic
• Greece
• Hungary
• Latvia
• Montenegro
• Lithuania
• North Macedonia
• Poland
• Romania
• Slovenia
• Slovakia
• Serbia

What is 17+1 initiative?

The 17+1 initiative is an initiative by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The initiative is also known as “Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries”. The initiative aims to promote the investment and business relations between China and 17 CEE countries.

The Bottom Line

“Sinatra Doctrine”, name taken from the song “My Way” popularized by Frank Sinatra, was used by the Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev for describing their policy which allows the neighboring Warsaw Pact states to determine their internal affairs. The implementation of Sinatra doctrine was part of Gorbachev government’s doctrine of new political thinking.