[War & Business] NATO's Eastward Expansion

The NATO flag and the flags of member countries displayed at the NATO headquarters building located in Brussels, Belgium. [Image source: NATO official website]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] In 1999, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, former representative countries of the Eastern Bloc, joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), marking the beginning of what Russia has recently claimed as NATO's "eastward expansion." These regions, which harbored strong resentment against the Soviet Union, applied for NATO membership immediately after the Soviet collapse.

Then, in 2004, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, along with Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, joined NATO, bringing most Eastern Bloc countries under NATO's umbrella. Despite Russia's strong opposition each time NATO expanded, the number of NATO member states steadily increased alongside the number of European Union (EU) member states.

Russia's counterattack against NATO's eastward expansion began in earnest after Ukraine applied for NATO membership in 2009. That year marked the first time Russia weaponized its natural gas pipelines to Europe, implementing the "valve shut-off" strategy that caused hundreds of deaths in Eastern Europe. Following the forced annexation of Crimea in 2014, NATO's eastward expansion was halted, and a standoff between Russia and NATO has continued since.

Russia's particularly sensitive reaction to the Ukraine issue is not simply due to the ambitions of Vladimir Putin's regime. Historically, Russia has referred to Ukraine as "Little Russia" and considered the Kyiv area, Ukraine's capital, as part of Russia. This is because the medieval state of "Kievan Rus," which forms the origin of Russian history, began there. Belarus is also called "White Russia" and has been traditionally regarded as Russian territory by ancestors.

Many Russians still believe that the Soviet Union collapsed due to schemes by the United States and Western countries, resulting in the loss of their former territories. This perception underpinned President Putin's overwhelming support of over 80% during the forced annexation of Crimea in 2014.

NATO is also deeply concerned. Since the early 2000s, voices within NATO have continuously warned that the ongoing eastward expansion without a buffer zone with Russia could eventually lead to military conflict between the two sides. Moreover, a full-scale war with Russia, which wields not only military power but also natural gas and pipelines as weapons, is a situation that both Europe and the United States want to avoid.

Although this appears to be a conflict thousands of kilometers away, the power struggle between the two sides strongly impacts the situation on the Korean Peninsula. If the standoff between Russia and NATO prolongs without diplomatic breakthroughs in Europe, the "balloon effect" will influence international affairs, shifting attention to Northeast Asia, where the United States and China are in confrontation. How might other countries view our political circles, which remain engrossed in political satire like "anchovies and beans," even as such urgent situations unfold before our eyes?