Kremlin says any NATO commitment to halt expansion must be legally documented
Qabil Ashirov
Read moreNATO repeatedly broke its previous assurances that it would refrain from expanding eastward, making it essential for any future agreements on the issue to be formally documented in writing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Peskov made the remarks in an interview with Russia's Channel One.
He stressed that any commitment by NATO to abandon further expansion must be formalized in an official document.
"Of course, statements on an issue of such importance to us must be backed by concrete steps towards legally documenting NATO's commitment not to expand," Peskov said.
According to the Kremlin spokesman, Moscow was previously assured that NATO would not expand eastward. However, the alliance subsequently continued admitting new members, repeating the process five or six times, he claimed.
Russian business outlet RBC has outlined six rounds of NATO enlargement:
- First round – 1999: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
- Second round – 2004: Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
- Third round – 2009: Albania and Croatia.
- Fourth round – 2017: Montenegro.
- Fifth round – 2020: North Macedonia.
- Sixth round – 2023–2024: Finland and Sweden.
The latest enlargement brought Finland and Sweden into NATO, significantly changing the alliance's security footprint in Northern Europe.
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