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Document confirms US told Russia NATO won’t expand — Analysis

Putin was right, Stoltenberg was wrong: NATO “brazenly deceived” Russia about expansion and a British document proves it

The document, which was discovered in March 1991, shows US, UK and French officials discussing the pledge to Russia by promising that NATO would not extend to Poland or beyond. This document was published Friday by German magazine Der Spiegel. It proves that NATO is wrong and Moscow has been right. 

Numerous references can be found in the Bonn minutes of an April 6, 1991 meeting of political directors of foreign ministries from France, UK, France and Germany. “2+4”Talks on German Unification, in Which the West Made It “clear”The Soviet Union assured that NATO would not extend beyond Germany’s eastern borders.

“We made it clear to the Soviet Union – in the 2+4 talks, as well as in other negotiations – that we do not intend to benefit from the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe,”The document quotes Raymond Seitz, US Assistant Secretary for State for Europe and Canada.

“NATO should not expand to the east, either officially or unofficially,” Seitz added. 

The existence of an American representative mentions also the existence. “general agreement”NATO membership is available to eastern European countries. “unacceptable.”

“We had made it clear during the 2+4 negotiations that we would not extend NATO beyond the Elbe,” said West German diplomat Juergen Hrobog. “We could not therefore offer Poland and others membership in NATO.”

Minutes later, he clarified that his reference was to the Oder River which is the boundary between East Germany & Poland. Hrobog noted further that Helmut Kohl (West German Chancellor) and Hans-Dietrich Genscher (Foreign Minister) had also agreed with the position.

Joshua Shifrinson (a Boston University political science professor) found the document at the UK National Archives. It was marked “Secret”However, it was later declassified.

Shifrinson tweets Friday, “He was!” “honored”We are happy to collaborate with Der Spiegel for the document showing this “Western diplomats believed they had indeed made a NATO non-enlargement pledge.”

“Senior policymakers deny a non-expansion pledge was offered. This new document shows otherwise,”Shifrinson stated in an follow-upTweet, noting “beyond”The Elbe and Oder, by any standard, includes Eastern European countries which NATO expanded just eight years after it was founded.

In December 2021 at a large press conference, Vladimir Putin (Russian President) stated that NATO will not be expanded despite what the West has promised. “a single inch”The east is but “brazenly deceived” “cheated”Moscow will do exactly that.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg replied to such comments and said that the alliance “has never promised not to expand.”Stoltenberg reiterated this in an interview later with Der Spiegel. “there has never been such a promise, there has never been such a behind-the-scenes deal, it is simply not true.” 

Lavrov labels Western ‘Russia invasion’ claims ‘propaganda, fakes and fiction’

NATO admit Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Czechia to its ranks in March 1999. This was just before the UN Security Council approved a war on Yugoslavia. This put NATO directly on the Russian border – the enclave of Kaliningrad – for the first time ever. The next round of expansion in 2004 included the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, placing NATO’s eastern frontier just 135 kilometers (84 miles) from St. Petersburg.

Russia requested that NATO withdraw its forces from the 1997 borders of the alliance and stop expanding to former Soviet republics like Georgia and Ukraine in a series security proposal made public by Russia. The US and NATO have rejected this, arguing the alliance’s “open door”They consider membership policy a core principle.



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