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Middle-East 24 – May 31, 2022

Mirchia Jiwana, Deputy Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said that the alliance is breaking its previous commitments with Russia not to deploy forces in Eastern Europe, after Russia launched the war on its neighbor Ukraine since late February.

The Deputy Secretary-General of NATO added – in an interview with Agence France-Presse – that the Russian military attack on Ukraine “emptied the constitutive law of joint relations, cooperation and security between Russia and NATO of its content.”

In 1997, Moscow and NATO signed a founding law providing for “preventing any build-up of conventional forces that poses a potential threat in agreed areas of Europe, including Central and Eastern Europe.” They also pledged to hold regular consultations with NATO, which they do not do.”

The Deputy Secretary-General of NATO concluded that “there is no limitation now that we have a strong presence in the eastern flank (of Europe), ensuring that every inch (2.5 centimeters) of NATO territory is protected under Title V.”

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that any armed attack against one or more members of the alliance in Europe or North America is considered an aggression against them all.

Tactical combinations

And in 2017, NATO deployed multinational tactical groups in the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and Poland as a deterrent measure, and after the outbreak of the Russian war in Ukraine 3 months ago, the alliance reinforced its forces there.

The Baltic states called for a greater presence of their allies in the region, including the deployment of brigades (between 3,000 and 4,000 troops) to replace smaller tactical groups (between 600 and 800 soldiers).

NATO defense ministers will meet next June to discuss this issue and consider the membership applications submitted by Finland and Sweden on May 18.

It should be noted that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed in the fifties of the last century, and one of its most important goals was to confront the Soviet Union, and after the dissolution of the latter, NATO sought to secure the European security structure that prevailed after the end of the Cold War.

Since the end of the last century, many Eastern European countries have joined the Alliance; In 1999 Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined, then followed in 2004 by Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as Albania and Croatia in 2009, then Montenegro in 2017, and then North Macedonia in 2020.

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