THE NORTH Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) took a significant step forward last week when it officially welcomed seven new members to its fold. The seven, all former East Bloc countries or Soviet republics, have been eager to join NATO because the alliance offers them the greatest guarantee possible that they will never again come under the Russian yoke.
Russia is obviously not pleased. It regards NATO's expansion up to its borders as an unnecessary provocation, not to mention a vote of non-confidence in its own young democracy. Nevertheless, despite a bit of sabre-rattling in Moscow about the possibility that Russia may have to boost her own defences in reply, relations between Moscow and the West are unlikely to suffer badly for the time being.
The expansion of NATO is significant in another respect. To the extent it brings the US the world's sole remaining superpower into a multinational alliance, it serves as a counterweight to ever-present unilateralist tendencies in the US.
In a post-Cold War age, NATO is still struggling to redefine its identity. However, the character of its intervention in Afghanistan, for instance, points to a military organisation more attuned to international ideals than either the Cold War image of NATO or the current posturing of the US administration.
Therefore, the renewal of NATO, coupled with the US's continuing commitment to it, is something that the world community can probably welcome. As an organisation to consolidate democracy, it is serving an increasingly useful purpose.
The seven new NATO allies are Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, making this the biggest expansion in the pact's 55-year history.
With the NATO expansion to be followed in a month with the European Union adding 10 new members, observers see both moves as representing an end to decades of Cold War division in Europe.
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