Did NATO really deceive M. Gorbachev with promises not to expand?

Cheating dude

„Facebook“ in the record it is said that NATO terribly deceived its friend M. Gorbachev, because it promised him to stop the expansion of the Alliance, and then successfully forgot those promises.

“The truth that NATO wants to hide in order to continue its aggression against sovereign nations. They made a promise to Gorbachev and didn’t keep it. All along, their hidden agenda is to divide Russia and appropriate its natural resources…”, the distributed message asserts.

There is also a link to an article in the National Security Archive that describes the progress of the German reunification negotiations.

The publication states that the leaders of some North Atlantic Alliance countries pledged to M. Gorbachev that NATO will not expand.

In addition, such statements were made by the former United States Secretary of State James Baker.

A promise to “comrade” Gorbachev

US Secretary of State during the meeting with the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduard Shevardnadze and with M. Gorbachev himself – on February 9, 1990, he repeated the phrase “not an inch to the East” even three times.

Also the National Security Archive in the publication it is said that the Soviets repeatedly received such promises during the negotiations for the reunification of Germany.

However, there is no indication that any formal agreements have been made. Since NATO is an organization that includes a number of countries, not only European ones, it is not entirely correct to interpret the statements of individual political leaders as a promise of the entire Alliance.

In addition, it should be noted that in the same in the publication it is written that, for example, the United States at that time had a favorable attitude towards the USSR and even tried to prevent it from collapsing.

The promises could not conflict with the Washington Treaty

1949 m. Washington Treatywhich is an essential element of NATO, Article 10 allows any European country to join the Alliance:

“The parties may, by mutual agreement, invite any other European country that can support the principles of this Treaty and contribute to the security of the North Atlantic region to join this Treaty.

Any State so invited may become a Party to the Convention by depositing an instrument of accession with the Government of the United States of America.

The United States Government shall notify each Party of the deposit of each such instrument of accession,” the treaty reads.

Therefore, all the promises that could be made to the leadership of the USSR meant either changes to the Washington Treaty (as, for example, was done after the independence of Algeria), or were informal and not legally binding.

Due to German reunification and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the Washington Treaty was never amended.

Reuters/Scanpix photo/Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan

Gorbis did not feel cheated

Commenting on this situation, M. Gorbachiova himself said that the negotiations and promises did take place, but they were not related to the development of the Alliance, but to the development of its military infrastructure.

Moreover, NATO fulfilled these promises. In an interview in 2014 M. Gorbachev said:

“The issue of NATO expansion was not discussed in that year and did not arise at all. I say this with full responsibility.

No Eastern European country raised this issue even after the 1991 The Warsaw Pact ceased to exist. The leaders of Western countries did not raise it either.

Another issue raised by us was also discussed: that after the reunification of Germany, NATO’s military structures should not be developed and additional forces of the Alliance should not be deployed in the then GDR (German Democratic Republic ed. past.) in the territory.

Baker’s statement was made in this context … Kohli, Genscher also spoke about it. Everything that could and should be done to consolidate this political commitment was done. And he was executed.”

NATO made concessions to Moscow

It cannot be said that NATO basically ignored the issues of ensuring Russia’s security.

Here is 1997. “In the Basic Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between the Russian Federation and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization”among others, the following agreement was established:

“NATO member states confirm that they do not intend, plan or have reasons to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of new members and have no need to change any aspect of NATO’s nuclear force deployment or NATO’s nuclear policy, nor do they foresee such a need in the future.”

Vida Press photo/Kiss of Gorbachev and Honecker

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand to return NATO’s military infrastructure to 1997. boundaries was initially implemented and formalized with the most dangerous part of this infrastructure in mind – nuclear weapons.

In addition, many measures to ensure security in Europe and specific mechanisms of permanent cooperation for their implementation were foreseen.

Of course, the actions of the North Atlantic Alliance can be viewed critically and even harshly. However, there is no sufficient basis to suggest that this organization made any official promises to the Soviet Union that were later broken.

15min verdict: missing context. The message spread by Facebook is dominated by a biased and manipulative presentation of historical facts.

The publication was prepared in 15 minutes in partnership with Metawhich aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.