Not one inch to the east

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy threw a well-publicised tantrum when advised that there was no definite timeline for his country’s membership in NATO. Among reasons given were that his country was engaged in a war with Russia, and Ukraine has been long gripped by graft and corruption at all levels. Only recently, senior officials in Zelenskyy’s administration, along with five frontline governors, lost their jobs in fresh corruption scandals.

That has always been a major concern to many, with the billions of dollars being poured into a country that has been plagued with graft for decades, but the international media reportage has always centred around Zelenskyy as a sort of golden boy. Yet, a couple of noticeable cracks in NATO’s façade appeared at the latest meeting of all members and invited guests in Lithuania earlier this month, when British Defence Minister Ben Wallace and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan made very similar statements. Both admonished Zelenskyy for not showing more gratitude to NATO for all the support provided since the Russian invasion. Wallace went a little further in stating that the UK is not the online delivery service Amazon with all military supplies on Ukraine’s wishlist. Five days later, he advised he would be quitting politics at the next UK general election.

Ukraine’s ongoing problems with corruption is not the only war-related topic that international media mavens conveniently ignore. Russia’s belligerence towards Ukraine began with the eastwards expansion of NATO, but very little is ever discussed about that problem, as Western media simply characterises President Putin as ‘Bad mad Vlad the crazy dictator’.

The truth stems from the reunification of Germany in 1990 that followed the Berlin Wall coming down the previous year. During discussions with then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, assurances were made by then US Secretary of State James Baker that “if we maintain a presence in a Germany that is part of NATO, there would be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east”. These statements are easily accessible online, as is their confirmation by Jack Matlock, the last US ambassador to the erstwhile USSR, and Robert Gates the US deputy national security adviser at the time. When these promises were made, NATO consisted of the 12 founding members from 1949, plus Greece, Turkey and West Germany, who joined in 1950s, and Spain from 1982.

Of course, the USSR broke up in 1991, and the eastwards expansion began in 1999 during the waning days of President Clinton’s scandal-plagued administration. Both James Baker and Mikhail Gorbachev were held in high regard in diplomatic circles, but what a pity that that agreement was not put in writing about “not one inch to the east”.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada