Stoltenberg says Russia-Ukraine conflict mainly due to alliance’s expansion; economist blames US arrogance
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference ahead of a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 10, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
The chief of the US-led military alliance was seen in a recent video clip admitting that NATO’s expansion was a key reason behind Russia’s “special military operations” in Ukraine, contrary to what Western officials and media have been claiming since the conflict started.
“The background was that President (Vladimir) Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they (Russia) wanted NATO to sign to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And that was a pre-condition for not invading Ukraine,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Sept 7 during a joint committee meeting at the European Parliament.
The continuing US obsession with NATO enlargement is profoundly irresponsible and hypocritical.
Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University professor
“Of course we didn’t sign that,” said Stoltenberg, adding that Russia thus launched its military operations to prevent the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from moving closer to its borders.
“So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO close to its borders,” he said.
His speech was part of a three-minute clip compiled by video creator Matt Orfalea, featuring Western officials and experts who denied that the Russia-Ukraine conflict had anything to do with NATO.
In the video posted online on Oct 3, dozens of Western politicians such as United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, on different occasions, that the conflict was not about NATO enlargement.
However, Stoltenberg’s recent remarks contradicted such assertions, as Orfalea found out.
“We were told the Ukraine war is ‘not about NATO’, was ‘never about NATO’, and has ‘nothing to do with NATO’. Until now,” Orfalea wrote in the video’s description box.
“It is however crucial to understand, as Stoltenberg just confirmed, that war in Ukraine is taking place on a long historical continuum of controversy over NATO expansion,” Orfalea said.
Orfalea has nearly 88,000 subscribers on video-sharing platform YouTube and over 68,000 followers on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Also quoting Stoltenberg’s speech, US economist Jeffrey Sachs wrote in a commentary on Sept 20 that the conflict started because Putin wanted to “prevent NATO, more NATO, close to” Russia’s border.
“Ukraine is being destroyed by the US arrogance,” said Sachs, a university professor and director of the Center for Sustainable development at Columbia University in the US.
He added that the continuing US obsession with NATO enlargement is profoundly irresponsible and hypocritical.
While Russia raised valid security concerns and basis for negotiations by tabling a draft US-NATO security agreement to forestall war at the end of 2021, Sachs said the rejection by the US was out of “a combination of arrogance, hawkishness, and profound miscalculation”.
This showed that NATO maintained its position that it would not negotiate with Russia regarding NATO enlargement, said Sachs.
