Did the West promise not to expand NATO eastwards? A much-discussed question that historian Mary Elise Sarotte from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C. has now gotten to the bottom of in her book “Not one step further east – America, Russia and the true story of NATO’s eastward expansion”.
What surprised her most during her research? “The importance of Ukraine,” said the historian in a recent interview. “The powers that be said early on: peace in Europe depends on Ukraine. From today’s perspective, it is astonishing to read this insight in the historical sources.” https://militaeraktuell.at/lockheed-martin-aus-zwei-kaputten-f-35-wird-eine-neue/ In an interview with interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau Sarotte then goes into detail about the eastward expansion of NATO and the alleged promise not to push ahead with this expansion. “Baker (note: then US Secretary of State James Baker) speculated with Gorbachev (then Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev) that NATO might not expand eastwards. Former US politicians confirmed this to me, but they said it only referred to the GDR. But that wasn’t quite true. It was about both the GDR and Eastern Europe. What is written in black and white in the treaty, however, is that NATO can expand. If you look at the Russian position again, the politicians of the time say that Baker looked Gorbachev in the eye and said that Nato would not expand eastwards. That was a kind of gentleman’s agreement. Based on the sources, both are true.”
In the interview, Sarotte is then asked what conclusions she draws from this – her answer: “I’ve come to the conclusion that what’s in the contract is the most important thing. It’s not a child’s play, experienced professionals were at work here. Everyone negotiated hard, everything was at stake. It was about ending the division of Germany, the Cold War. The Russians didn’t get what they wanted. But they got a lot of money in return. Moscow signed the treaty, ratified it and collected the money. In English: They cashed the check. Putin (Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin) doesn’t give a damn about these details. But as a historian, I can say that it wasn’t as Putin always portrays it.” Around this part, Sarotte provides a vivid and detailed introduction to the decisive decade between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Putin. She also shows why a new security architecture for Europe did not emerge and how the seeds were sown for the tensions that define our world today.
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