Russia said that on the occasion of the reunification of the two Germanys, then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker made a promise during his meeting with Soviet President Gorbachev: "If NATO can maintain troops stationed in Germany, then NATO will not move eastward." Expand, eve

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Russia said that on the occasion of the reunification of the two Germanys (East Germany and West Germany ), James Baker, the then US Secretary of State, met with Soviet President Gorbachev. At that time, he made a promise:

"If NATO can maintain a garrison in Germany, then NATO will not expand eastward, even by an inch!"

However, this was not the case. After that, "NATO" led by the United States It has gone through 5 rounds of expansion, and it has not given up on its eastward expansion yet...

So the question is: What kind of organization is "NATO"? NATO expanded five times, which ones were they?

In this article, we will solve these two problems!

NATO, the full name of " North Atlantic Treaty Organization " , is an international organization established by European and North American countries to achieve "defense cooperation". It was founded on August 25, 1949 and is headquartered in , the capital of Belgium. Brussels .

At the beginning of NATO's establishment, there were only 12 member states, namely: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands , Belgium, Luxembourg , Canada, Denmark , Norway , Iceland , Italy, and Portugal .

According to the provisions of the Convention: When any one of the contracting states is attacked by an armed attack, it can be regarded as an attack on all contracting states.

In the following years, Greece, Turkey, and the Federal Republic of Germany successively joined NATO. Spain also joined in 1982.

As of 1982, NATO already has 16 member states!

NATO has a large number of nuclear weapons and conventional troops and is an important military force in the West.

Of course, this is also a symbol of the strategic alliance among the Western military camps after World War II. It is the extension and development of the "Marshall Plan" in the military field.

Let us explain a little here. The so-called "Marshall Plan", or "European Recovery Plan", was the United States' plan after World War II to provide economic assistance and assist in reconstruction of Western European countries that were devastated by the war.

The program officially launched in July 1947 and continued for four full fiscal years.

During this period, Western European countries received a total of US$13.15 billion in various aids from the United States, 90% of which were gifts and only 10% were loans.

We have to admit that the "Marshall Plan" had a profound impact on the development of European countries and the world political pattern.

And it is precisely because of this that the United States is able to control the "EU defense system" headed by Germany and France.

You must know that 21 of the 27 member states of the EU are members of NATO.

Of course, this move by the United States is also to achieve its so-called leadership position as a "superpower" in the world.

With the signing of the "Warsaw Pact" by the Soviet camp on May 14, 1955 to fight against NATO, the Cold War officially kicked off.

During the Cold War, NATO's main strategic goal was to prevent the Warsaw Pact large-scale military invasion.

Because of this, military issues have become the main consideration in the design of NATO's security strategy.

In September 1990, after the Democratic Republic of Germany broke away from the Warsaw Pact , it officially announced its membership of NATO in the name of Germany.

In fact, to put it simply, NATO was the product of the confrontation between the two major camps of the East and the West during the Cold War. Its main purpose was to contain the Soviet Union.

However, with the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact, NATO also lost its opponents. Therefore, at the beginning, NATO's purpose, function and positioning became problems and needed to be redefined.

Although the 16 members of NATO are equal in name, the United States is still the actual leader of NATO whether during the Cold War or after the Cold War.

In order to ensure that the United States plays a leading role in European political and military affairs, the Bush administration also emphasized that NATO should become "the core of a free and peaceful Europe."

Of course, this so-called "confusion" is not long-term. NATO, which regards Russia as a continuation of the Soviet Union, has gradually found a new path - eastward expansion!

Since 1999, NATO has experienced five eastward expansions, advancing more than 1,000 kilometers eastward, absorbing 14 countries, and developing to 30 countries today.

So, what are the five rounds of NATO’s eastward expansion? The first round of

took place in 1999, absorbing Hungary , Poland and Czech 3 countries.

As early as February 1990, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia had established the " Visegrad Group " , hoping to rely on this regional security alliance to ensure their own security.

After the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact , these countries immediately put forward the request to join NATO, but at the beginning, the United States and Europe did not have a clear idea.

By 1993, as the situation in Russia was turbulent, countries such as Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were worried about the resurgence of Russian nationalism, so they strengthened diplomatic ties with the West and repeatedly made requests to join NATO in order to seek NATO membership. protection of.

In April of the same year, the presidents of these three countries came to Washington, the United States, to attend the opening ceremony of the Holocaust Memorial Museum. During this period, they asked Clinton to join NATO in person, but they still were not allowed.

After the "NATO Summit", Clinton also personally visited Poland, Hungary, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, to reassure the leaders of these countries who were eager to join NATO, and assured that "NATO will expand" and their security It is important to the security of the United States.

In July 1997, the NATO Madrid Summit formally invited Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to conduct specific consultations on the alliance, so that the three countries could join NATO in 1999, and in 1999, Romania and Slovenia were selected as NATO candidate countries.

The following year, the U.S. Senate and President Clinton respectively approved and signed NATO's Eastward Expansion Protocol.

In 1999, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic officially joined NATO. This is NATO's first round of eastward expansion.

The second eastward expansion occurred in 2004, when Bulgaria , Latvia , Lithuania , Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia 7 countries announced to join NATO.

The third eastward expansion occurred in 2009, when Albania and Croatia joined NATO;

The fourth eastward expansion occurred in 2017, when Montenegro joined NATO.

In the fifth eastward expansion in 2020, North Macedonia joined NATO.

In more than 20 years from 1999 to 2020, NATO has absorbed a total of 14 member states, and currently has a total of 30 countries.

NATO’s eastward expansion has greatly threatened Russia’s homeland security.

Russian Deputy Minister of Defense Fomin once said: compared with 2020, the number of NATO reconnaissance aircraft dispatched in the Black Sea region in 2021 increased from 436 to 710, an increase of 60% .

In the Baltic Sea region, NATO countries have conducted more than 1,200 flights and more than 50 maritime reconnaissance sorties.

In 2021, the NATO Joint Forces Command conducted as many as 15 exercises in the Black Sea and more than 20 combat trainings in the Baltic Sea...

These actions have to make Russia nervous.As Putin said:

"They (NATO) admitted to us in the 1990s that they would not expand eastward. What was the result? We were deceived, they shamelessly deceived us, NATO Northeast has been expanded five times, and now Romania and Poland have deployed missile systems. What does this mean? We are not threatening others. We have not gone to the US border or the British border. They have come to find us. Now they are talking about Ukraine. Want to join NATO...!”

So you see, NATO’s eastward expansion is very detrimental to the relationship between Russia and Europe.

Of course, Russia is not alone in opposing NATO's eastward expansion. Some people in the United States are also opposed to this.

For example, Jack Matlock, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991, once wrote: "I witnessed it all, we deceived Russia."

In addition, the famous Cold War history expert John Lewis Gaddis also wrote:

"Most historians agree that the idea of ​​expanding NATO was wrong, the timing was wrong, and it did not reflect the reality of the post-Cold War world."

To sum up, it is We have given a brief overview of NATO and NATO's five eastward expansions. If there are any mistakes, please criticize and correct them!