US pledge in 1991 to not expand NATO an inch in the East

On February 9, 1990, James Baker, then U.S. Secretary of State, said exactly this: “we consider that the consultations and discussions in the framework of the 2+4 mechanism should provide a guarantee that German reunification will not lead to an expansion of the NATO military organisation to the east.” The next day, Chancellor Helmut Kohl echoed, “We consider that NATO should not expand its sphere of activity.” 1

It was only later, with the rise of the neoconservatives, that President Bill Clinton decided to ignore them and succeeded, in 1997, in expanding NATO eastwards by admitting new members in exchange for a $4 billion “bribe” to his friend Boris Yeltsin, as Yeltsin later called this gift.2

NATO and the Long War on the Third World#^34971b

For decades, Russia has claimed that NATO's eastward expansion violated Western commitments after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now a remarkable document has surfaced.3

Backlinks

The following pages link to this page:

  1. Truths and lies about pledges made to Russia ↩

  2. Truths and lies about pledges made to Russia ↩

  3. New find of files from 1991 supports Russian accusation ↩