US Secretary of State Brinken (right) shakes hands with Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto (left) after joining NATO on April 4. In the center is NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg (Photo: Representative photo/Reuters/Aflo)
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(Yoichi Masuzoe: Scholar of International Politics)
On April 4, Finland formally joined NATO. 31st member. Russia strongly opposes this and is taking countermeasures such as using 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 great empire and lost control over its satellite states. NATO’s eastward expansion has caused this.
Chancellor Kohl of West Germany believed that an understanding of the Soviet Union was necessary for the unification of East and West Germany, and he promised not to expand NATO in order to dispel General Secretary Gorbachev’s concerns.
Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, the “promise” of not expanding NATO was kept, and in January 1994 NATO created the “Partnership for Peace (PfP)” as an alternative to enlargement, and until countries did not join Eastern Europe. Russia also agreed to treat it as a partner.
At the end of 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 war in Ukraine.
