NATO Enlargement Not Directed at Russia

11 September 2008

(Russian actions distorting relations with the West, State’s Fried says)

By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — The post-Cold War enlargement of NATO was not directed against Russia, a senior U.S. official says.

"NATO enlargement was intended to achieve emergence of a Europe whole, free and at peace — all of Europe, not just its western half," said Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried.  "In designing NATO's new role for the post-Cold War world, the United States and NATO allies have sought to advance NATO-Russia relations as far as the Russians would allow it to go."

Fried said the United States assumed Russia was a partner that, over time, would move toward more democracy at home and more cooperation with its neighbors and the world.  Something, though, changed.

"Russia has turned toward authoritarianism at home and pressure tactics toward its neighbors," Fried said in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee September 10.  "We want to have a partner in a Russia that contributes to an open, free world in the 21st century, not a Russia that behaves as an aggressive Great Power in a 19th century sense that asserts — as [Russian] President [Dmitry] Medvedev recently did — a sphere of influence or privileged interests over its neighbors and beyond."

Fried testified at a congressional hearing held to review and approve new protocols to the North Atlantic Treaty that created NATO more than a half century ago.  The Senate committee also will review the proposed candidacy of Albania and Croatia to join NATO, and the possible future addition of Macedonia, Ukraine and Georgia.

The United States supports entering Ukraine and Georgia in the membership process, known as a Membership Action Plan (MAP), that helps prepare a country for eventual membership, though it is no guarantee, he said.

"Russia has made clear that it would regard even a MAP for Georgia and Ukraine with hostility.  We regret this position.  We believe it is the wrong choice, both for the long-term security and stability of Russia's neighbors as well as for Russia itself," Fried said.

Expanding NATO's relations with nations east of the old Iron Curtain has brought greater security and stability, he said.  Russia's reaction has produced anxiety and tension.

The NATO alliance is a successful military alliance, Fried said, that remains the principal security instrument of the trans-Atlantic community, but it is also an alliance of values.

Following the Cold War, many of the East European nations that had been liberated from the former Soviet Union and communism found themselves uncertain and seeking a new direction, he said.  They were not confident in their own democratic institutions.

"Many worried that Eastern Europe after 1989 might fall back into the dangerous old habits of state-ism and nationalism, and border and ethnic rivalries," he said.

But it was through NATO membership, which came faster than EU membership, that these nations of Central and Eastern Europe reconciled with each other, and advanced and completed political reforms, Fried said.

"The policy of NATO enlargement, which many here today helped shape, was one of America's and Europe's greatest successes after the fall of the Berlin Wall," he said.

Enlargement into the Balkans

Senator Christopher Dodd, who chaired the hearing, said that adding Albania and Croatia to the alliance will be a force for stability in the Balkans.  "Our aim in this hearing is to determine whether both of these candidate countries have met the criteria for NATO membership," he said.

Dodd said that in addition to the others, Macedonia is also awaiting membership as soon as a name dispute with Greece can be resolved.  Fried said the United States continues to support Macedonia for membership, saying, "We believe a mutually acceptable solution is possible, in the interest of both countries and the region, and indeed urgent."

Fried said NATO enlargement, along with European Union enlargement, for the Balkans in this decade can do what it did for Central Europe in the previous decade.

"Albania, Croatia and Macedonia ... have undertaken and implemented the sort of reforms we have sought in significant part because they want to get into NATO," he said.  "By providing general security to the Balkans, starting with the two aspirant nations whose accession the [Bush] administration is seeking the Senate's advice and consent [on], we can consolidate general peace and security in the Balkans."

The text of Fried's testimony as prepared for delivery is available on America.gov.