U.S. Secretary of State Brinken (right) shakes hands with Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto (left) following joining NATO on April 4. In the center is NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg (Photo: Representative photo/Archyde.com/Aflo)
Go to gallery page
(Yoichi Masuzoe: Scholar of International Politics)
On April 4, Finland formally joined NATO. 31st member. Russia vehemently opposes this and is taking countermeasures such as deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
The Origins of the Ukraine War…Clinton’s Betrayal
The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, ending the Cold War. Germany was reunified on October 3, 1990, and the Soviet Union collapsed on December 26, 1991.
Since then, Russia has shrunk its once-major empire and lost control over its satellite states. NATO’s eastward expansion has caused this.
Chancellor Kohl of West Germany believed that the understanding of the Soviet Union was necessary for the unification of East and West Germany, and promised not to expand NATO in order to dispel General Secretary Gorbachev’s concerns.
Even following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the “promise” of NATO non-expansion was kept, and in January 1994 NATO created the “Partnership for Peace (PfP)” as an alternative to expansion, and until Eastern European countries did not join. Russia also agreed to treat it as a partner.
In late 1994, however, President Clinton changed his policy by declaring that “any country can join NATO” in order to win the votes of Eastern European immigrants in the presidential election. This sudden change in America is the origin of the current Ukraine war.
