The expansion of NATO, November 2002
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, commonly known as
NATO, expanded to 26 members on
November 21, 2002 by provisionally incorporating seven countries which had been under
Communist rule not much more than a decade before:
Estonia,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Romania,
Bulgaria,
Slovenia and
Slovakia.
Although three eastern European countries -
Poland, the
Czech Republic and
Hungary - had already joined the alliance in
1999, coincidentally just in time for NATO's action in
Kosovo, this round included the three
Baltic states, parts of the
Soviet Union itself until
1991.
The enlargement, to be formalised in
2004, was announced at NATO's
Prague summit, the city where the
Warsaw Pact had dissolved itself at the end of the
Cold War. All the new member states, as well as the class of '99, had belonged to the Pact, with the exception of
Slovenia, then a republic of
Yugoslavia which played a leading role in the
Non-Aligned Movement.
No, Slovenia. They've both joined at once, so there isn't any excuse.
While NATO became responsible for some 44 million people after the expansion, the military utility of some of its new signatories appeared somewhat limited: the Estonian army, the smallest of the seven, contained only 4,500 soldiers, although has enthusiastically contributed to international
peacekeeping.
The strategic value of Bulgaria and Romania was more readily apparent, providing convenient bases close to
Kosovo and ensuring a clear flight path towards the
Middle East, should such a thing be thought to
come in handy.
Even the Slovenian contingent of 7,600 includes a specialist mountain fighting force, a detachment the Alpine republic would have been badly advised to try to do without. NATO might have been especially anxious to get these last into the fold, if one can believe a story gleefully repeated in sections of the British media that, during the
war in Afghanistan, soldiers of the illustrious
10th Mountain Division were overheard declaring that '
We don't do mountains.'
The enlargement was warmly welcomed in the newcomer states, the mayor of
Bucharest declaring it 'the first moment of national dignity since
World War I.' Many Baltic citizens welcomed the alliance as providing them with insurance in case they should ever be placed under threat by
Russia, although the nearest any of their politicians came to controversy was the former Estonian prime minister
Mart Laar's decision to shave off his beard in celebration.
The Czech president
Vaclav Havel suffered one or two sleepless nights of another kind, having to organise the tight security arrangements obligatory for any international summit since
Seattle. American fighter planes flew over Prague to guard against a terrorist attack, and shops around
Wenceslas Square were boarded up in case
anti-globalization protests turned violent.
(At the time of writing, the 14,000 soldiers and riot police on duty had been vexed by little more than several offensive
tomatoes.)
A future round of NATO expansion is likely to comprise
Albania,
Macedonia and
Croatia, all of whom have signed up to the preliminary
Partnership for Peace scheme. Bringing the first two on board is likely to have more to do with
regional stability than tipping the balance against
Saddam Hussein, while Croatia's entry will depend on stepping up its co-operation with the
War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague.
The participation of the
Ukraine appears rather more uncertain, despite the enthusiasm of its president
Leonid Kuchma: not long before the Prague summit, the American government had claimed he had helped sell an
aircraft detection system to Iraq. To NATO leaders' chagrin, Kuchma
attended the summit after all, forcing a quick shuffle of the
seating plan to avoid him being placed between
Tony Blair and
George W. Bush in the
plenary session.
Omnidirectional Halo says: Quick addition: Croatia, Albania and Macedonia are not only PfP members, but also Membership Action Plan (MAP) members, which is why they're expected to form the next round of expansion. They are. Thank you.