Still no peace in Europe 25 years after signing of NATO-Russia Founding Act
On 27 May 1997, NATO and Russia signed a non-binding treaty that for years formed the foundation for cooperation between the two sides, separated between 1949 and 1989 by the Cold War's Iron Curtain. But today, not much is left of this early attempt to heal divisions between the former arch-enemies.
Issued on:
"NATO and its member states, on the one hand, and the Russian Federation, on the other hand ... will build together a lasting and inclusive peace in the Euro-Atlantic area on the principles of democracy and cooperative security," the text of the NATO-Russia Founding Act on Mutual Relations reads.
Today, exactly 25 years after signing the treaty, it is nothing more than a dead letter.
How did it start?
At a summit in London in July 1990, NATO for the first time said that Warsaw Pact countries were no longer "adversaries". The then secretary general of the alliance, former German defence minister Manfred Wörner, went to Moscow and met with the president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1991, the USSR itself was dissolved. Six years later US president Bill Clinton – together with his French and Russian counterparts Boris Yeltsin and Jacques Chirac – signed the NATO-Russia Founding Act.
It formed the foundation for the NATO-Russia Council, a platform to discuss military policy issues and coordinate cooperation.
But while the Warsaw Pact (USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania) had completely disappeared, NATO expanded eastwards, swallowing the former USSR satellites – to the anger of Yeltsin and his successor Vladimir Putin, who claim that they were led to believe the alliance would never expand eastward.
During the NATO-Russia Council in April 2008 at a NATO summit in Bucharest, Russia objected strongly against yet another possible expansion, when Ukraine and Georgia - both former USSR states - showed interest to join the alliance.
The Federation strikes back
After Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia, NATO suspended the council, but resumed it in 2009. Later on, the platform was used for Moscow and NATO to discuss issues ranging from Libya to Afghanistan with NATO partners.
By the end of 2013 the two sides were still meeting, but the relationship between Moscow and the West had grown increasingly tense. Four months later, Russia annexed Crimea. NATO member France cancelled a deal to sell two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships to Moscow. The ships were instead sold to Egypt.
After Russia annexed Crimea, NATO froze cooperation with Moscow. But it did invite then Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko to the 2014 NATO summit in the UK. Both sides stated a commitment to "develop a special partnership" between the alliance and Ukraine.
At the end of 2021, relations between NATO and Moscow had again deteriorated. Russia staged a massive build-up of troops along Ukraine's border, while at the same time demanding that NATO withdraw behind its 1997 line.
Talks in January 2022 led to nothing. On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine, effectively ending 25 years of cooperation with NATO.
Three months into the war, Finland and Sweden, formerly neutral, indicated that they wanted to apply for membership of the alliance in spite of Russian threats and protests.
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