DISINFO: Claims that NATO is an exclusively defensive alliance are stupid and shameful
SUMMARY
NATO is constantly on the lookout for an external enemy that will keep the alliance alive. The meaning of NATO's existence was lost when the Warsaw Pact disappeared and the Soviet Union disappeared.
Statements that NATO is an exclusively defensive alliance are stupid and shameful. NATO expanded five times in the post-Cold War years.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about NATO, portraying it as a belligerent organisation.
NATO is a defensive alliance with primary aims to maintain peace and safeguard the independence, security and territorial integrity of its members. NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's official policy is that "the Alliance does not seek confrontation and poses no threat to Russia."
Volountarily Central and Eastern European countries began seeking NATO membership in the early 1990s. This is an expression of free national political will. NATO actively sought to create a cooperative environment that was conducive to enlargement while simultaneously building special relations with Russia.
Furthermore, the claim about NATO "expansion" misrepresents the process of NATO enlargement. NATO does not "expand" but considers the applications of candidate countries that want to join.
The assertion that NATO has lost its raison d'être is unfounded. Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine is an example of a real Russian threat to the European continent. By own democratic decision Finland and Sweden decided to apply to NATO membership. This provides for a likely new enlargement of NATO with Finland and Sweden's accesstion to NATO.
'The Russian Federation is the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area," NATO leaders stated in Madrid Summit Declaration.
Read five Russian Myths debunked here.
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