Definition of Ostpolitik in English:
Ostpolitik
noun ˈɒstpɒlɪˌtiːkˈästpäləˌtēk
mass nounhistorical The foreign policy of western European countries of detente with reference to the former communist bloc, especially the opening of relations with the Eastern bloc by the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) in the 1960s.
Example sentencesExamples
- In its generic form, Ostpolitik comprised the Federal Republic of Germany's political relationships with its East European neighbors and the Soviet Union.
- As a precondition to that aim, his new Ostpolitik began with the Moscow Treaty of 12 August 1970, in which West Germany de facto recognized the postwar annexations of German territory by the USSR and Poland.
- The EU, on the other hand, never actually had an Ostpolitik and found itself faced with an issue that it was unfit to deal with.
- The issue that brought the two parties together was the development of a new Ostpolitik, which sought to normalize relations with eastern Europe.
- However, in 1968, when both the American administration as well as the Grand Coalition in Bonn had begun to embark on a more active Eastern policy, France's Ostpolitik came to a standstill.
Origin
German, from Ost 'east' + Politik 'politics'.