– NATO and Russia do not consider each other as opponents, it says in the pact that the two partners signed in 1997.
On Friday, it is exactly 25 years since the two great powers entered into cooperation, where it is clear that both countries together will overcome previous confrontations, as well as strengthen mutual trust and cooperation.
“This law reaffirms the will of NATO and Russia to give concrete substance to their common commitment to build a stable, peaceful and undivided Europe, completely and freely, for the benefit of all its peoples,” it said. in the peace agreement.
The agreement marked the end of a 40-year cold war, but now, 25 years later, the promises in the pact may have been forgotten overnight.
Different spheres of interest create problems
The two countries also set up a permanent council for talks, but the council will not have a meeting test for several years.
Janne Haaland Matlary, professor of international politics at the University of Oslo, says the council has never really played a major role in recent years.
– It has actually never played any particular role, because Russia has always wanted a hand on the wheel, which is natural when you sit in a council that is bilateral with two actors – Russia and NATO, she says to TV 2 on Friday morning.
The dilemma of how to divide Europe between them, with two different spheres of interest, creates difficulties, according to the professor.
– It has been problematic here from the beginning, and NATO has tried to normalize Russia into its understanding of the world, in our basic democratic concepts, but Russia has not been interested in it, Haaland Matlary explains.
– EXPERT: Professor Janne Haaland Matlary believes it will be difficult for NATO and Russia to maintain the content of the agreement from 1997. Photo: Mellvang-Berg, Trygve / NTB.
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Predict the death of the agreement
Russia’s expulsion of NATO diplomats last year did not improve the situation.
– Then Russia got enough and closed its office in Brussels. So the relationship is very bad and has been passable for many, many years. Now it’s really dead.
– Is there reason to believe that it will just cease?
– Yes, this is a diplomatic agreement and a format for meetings that I can not imagine being revived. We are in the middle of a war with NATO on the one hand – even if they are not directly involved – it is the weapons’ speech that will determine the political fate of Ukraine, says Haaland Matlary.
That NATO has strengthened tremendously recently with both the American revival and the new membership applications from the Nordic countries, she believes is a clear factor in this.
– The relationship is completely dead
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– Creative history writing
The professor refutes rumors that Russia has been promised that no previous countries in the Warsaw Pact would be admitted to NATO.
– NATO has not agreed to agreements where they say that one should never expand with new countries, because it is in the NATO treaty itself that countries that want membership and that are democratic rule of law can apply. They have no right to membership, but it is an “open door policy”, she says.
Although Russia may be of a different opinion.
– It may be that Russia thinks they have such an understanding, but it does not formally exist. It is seen that agreements are being broken, now among other things with Ukraine, and they were guaranteed a sovereignty by Russia in 1994, and that has certainly not been the case. So here it is a creative writing of history, says Haaland Matlary.
Russia’s narrative
Although Putin has repeatedly indicated that he sees NATO as a military threat to Russia’s security, the professor does not believe the statements are valid.
– No, it is part of the narrative from Russia, that NATO is a threat, an offensive alliance that wants to beat Russia and wants to expand up to Russia’s borders, and which intends to subjugate the whole of Europe.
If this were to prove true, the professor believes that Russia would be very worried about being attacked by, for example, the Nordic countries or other NATO countries.
“Then Russia would not take the liberty of deploying all the forces into Ukraine, because then they would be very afraid of being attacked by NATO, so it falls on its own unreasonableness,” says Haaland Matlary.
Sweden and Finland recently submitted their formal applications for NATO membership. Both countries have strong democratic values, which the professor believes Russia fears more.
– It is not NATO’s military alliance, but it is the combination of democracy and the defense of democracy, she says.
– A dramatic situation
Despite the fact that the 25-year-old peace agreement has not been “active” in recent years, Haaland Matlary believes that NATO and Russia will still have to have a relationship with each other.
– It will certainly be a relationship, because they have to relate to each other at some point, but right now there is an intensification of warfare in south-eastern Ukraine, says Haaland Matlaryn, which she believes affects how the relationship will develop further.
Russia’s advance and the use of advanced missiles against the Donbas region may prove to be a major problem in the long run.
– It is a very dramatic situation, because there is no political contact and there is no diplomatic process, the professor says.
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