NATO’s most groundbreaking change, most NATO officials agree, is a conceptual one. Countries no longer feel constrained by the NATO-Russia founding act, a 1997 document signed by the alliance and Moscow that, among other things, called for a reduction of military force and the avoidance of new deployments close to each other’s geographies, Financial Times reports.
“The NATO-Russia act is still there. But nothing that we have to do is going to be hampered by its content,” says Admiral Rob Bauer, chair of the NATO Military Committee, the alliance’s highest military authority.
Privately, many member state officials say they consider it dead.
“For now, the general opinion on the political level is that we do not kill [the agreement], but nothing in it . . . will stop us doing what we have to do,” Bauer adds.
NATO argues it has little choice but to expand its presence in Eastern Europe.
“Is it safer? Well, not doing it will not make us safer,” says Admiral Rob Bauer, chair of the NATO Military Committee, the alliance’s highest military authority.
“Not being strong and credible is more dangerous than being strong and credible,” he adds. “The deterrence factor is very important.”
The 1997 document, in particular, states that Moscow "does not consider NATO as adversaries" and refuses to deploy significant military forces near each other's borders.
At the end of 2021, Russia published a draft agreement with the United States on a security guarantee agreement with NATO. Moscow has demanded legal guarantees from its Western partners to refrain from further NATO expansion to the east, to join Ukraine in the alliance, and to establish military bases in post-Soviet countries. The proposals contain a point that NATO should not deploy strike weapons near Russia's borders; in Eastern Europe, the alliance should return to its 1997 positions.
