Three years ago, on May 20-21, 2012, a NATO summit held in Chicago examined the alliance’s absence in Europe’s East – Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Belarus. “This is the arena of protracted conflicts (Russia-Moldova, Russia-Georgia on two fronts, Armenia-Azerbaijan), territorial occupations, ethnic cleansing, massive Russian military bases (prolonged in Ukraine and Armenia since 2010 for decades to come), and failing tests of NATO’s open-door and partnership policies,” wrote Vladimir Socor of the Eurasia Daily Monitor (EDM).
The NATO pattern of “benign neglect” toward these eastern countries, “which deepens from one summit cycle to the next, NATO’s policy from Lisbon to Chicago has confirmed the pattern. NATO/U.S. disengagement and Russian sphere-of-influence rebuilding are concurrent processes, mutually reinforcing in this region.”
At the Chicago summit, NATO urged the continuation of conflict negotiation formats (5+2 in Moldova, the Geneva format in Georgia, the “Minsk Group” in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict) despite their ineffectiveness. A communiqué urged “all parties to engage constructively and with reinforced political will in peaceful conflict resolution,” adding, “the persistence of protracted conflicts in the South Caucasus and Moldova continues to be a matter of great concern for the Alliance. Overcommitted to failed expeditionary operations in distant theaters, NATO has no security solution to offer in its eastern neighborhood; and – as the Chicago summit confirmed – NATO lacks the collective inclination to provide one.”
In 2012, Georgia was the only East European country that had increased its NATO membership ambitions. Ukraine’s president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych, said during the Chicago summit that he sought business opportunities stemming from NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, including heavy-duty air transport. Azerbaijan sought an upgraded individual partnership with NATO during the summit, and confirmation of its territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty in the summit’s communiqué, along with Georgia and Moldova. Armenia, which illegally occupies areas of Azerbaijan with Russia’s support, declined to attend the summit in a nod to Moscow.
During the summit, Lithuania and Romania expressed concern over arms sales by certain Western European countries to Russia, noting that these types of sales can generate security risks to NATO allies and partners. France’s Mistral-class warships and Italy’s test samples of Centauro tanks and Iveco armored vehicles to Russia were two examples that were highlighted during the summit.
EDM’s Mr. Socor noted that NATO’s relevance to the security of its eastern neighborhood (from Ukraine to the South Caucasus), which sits astride the alliance’s vital energy supply routes to Europe and logistical corridors to Asia, continues to be an area where NATO must prove itself.
This year, the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC), formed in Madrid on July 9, 1997, to coordinate activities and cooperation between Ukraine and NATO allies, met in Antalya, Turkey, to review the security situation in Ukraine, the implementation of the Minsk ceasefire agreements and the situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea of Ukraine. A press release from the May 13 meeting, stated, “…we reiterate that an independent, sovereign and stable Ukraine, firmly committed to democracy and the rule of law, is key to Euro-Atlantic security.”
Source: “Chicago summit: NATO remains AWOL from Europe’s East,” by Vladimir Socor (Eurasia Daily Monitor), The Ukrainian Weekly, June 3, 2012.