Ireland: Reluctantly Re-thinking Russia

Ireland’s relations with Russia have been shaped by three factors: geography, the country’s neutrality and, since Ireland joined the then European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, EEC/EC/EU membership. Geographically, Ireland is one of the European states most distant from Russia, geo-strategically sheltered from Russia by mainland Europe and the United Kingdom. Consequently, Ireland has never had a strong sense of a Soviet or Russian threat. Geography also explains why Irish-Russian trade has been relatively limited in scale. Russia has never been central to the Irish economy and has no special economic leverage over Ireland. Ireland’s security policy of neutrality—which emerged during the Second World War and led to the rejection of possible NATO membership in 1948–1949—has, at the same time, meant that bilateral relations with Russia/Soviet Union have been free from problems arising from NATO-Soviet and now NATO-Russia tensions.