Expansion of NATO and the Global Geopolitics
NATO as we can infer from its full form North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an organization that primarily aims to protect the interests of countries around the North Atlantic region. The Headquarters of NATO are in Brussels, Belgium.
Initially its goal was to keep the Russians out, Americans in and Germans down as said by the first secretary general of NATO- Lord Ismay who was one of the main military officers of the British army during world war-2. He even called Soviets burglar when soviet wanted to join NATO in 1954. He was the supporter of the expansion of NATO.
Now let's first touch briefly on the history of NATO.
NATO was founded in 1949 by the US and some Western countries to protect their interests and collectively secure them against the soviet union. Article 5 of the constitution of NATO is an important outline in the news as it says that an attack on one country means an attack on other countries. Turkey and Greece were made part of this organization in 1952 and the Federal Republic of Germany( West Germany) was added in 1955 due to which the Soviets were angry and they also formed the Warsaw Treaty Organization in 1955. There were no such military confrontations among these blocs but proxy wars. But this pact ended on 25th February 1991 at a meeting of member states in Hungary. After the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991, CSTO( Collective Security Treaty Organization) was formed which has Armenia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
Current Scenario of NATO
Currently, NATO has 31 countries as its members, recently Finland was added on 4th April 2023 even after the warnings of attack from Russia. Turkey has been blocking the entry of Sweden and Finland to the group as it believes that Sweden is feeding the terrorists and should extradite the members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey. Currently, Sweden is not able to join the organization but the application of Finland was accepted and it is now part of the organization. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Sweden, and Ukraine are the next probable members of the group as they are interested in joining NATO.
Expansion of NATO is considered important by the US to counter China in Asia pacific region( Chinese terminology) or Indo-Pacific region(Western terminology). NATO+ is an expansion of US outside the North Atlantic region which comprises of five countries — Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Israel.
Stance of India
Recently there was a recommendation by US lawmakers to add India to NATO+ but the foreign minister of India, Dr. S. Jaishankar rejected the idea saying that:
India believe in partnerships and we do not want to enter alliance( which is terminology used by US). We don’t need NATO to counter China, we are self sufficient for that.
My opinion for the participation of India in NATO is that India should not join NATO+ as Article 5 of NATO won’t be effective for the NATO+ countries but it will affect our relations with Russia and China as our non-alignment policy will be completely towards the western side. India is also sufficient to protect against China as it is military 4th strongest army in the world and is also the largest army in the world by the number of army persons. But India should do regular air, and army exercises with NATO, more collaborations, and agreements without directly joining NATO. India should instead focus on convincing the USA for the veto power and permanent membership in UNSC.
Chinese Stance
China’s stance on this issue is very aggressive as it is saying that the US is trying to brainwash countries in Asia so that they can join NATO and this will destabilize the whole region.
The below image can show us the thinking of China around this issue as it is clearly indicating India as elephant which is running away from the hands of US to join NATO as reported by Global Times which is the newspaper controlled by the communist party of China.
The Stance of USA’s Allies
Even many members of NATO do not agree on the expansion of NATO. Recently French President Emanuel Macron said that the expansion of NATO is not necessary as it might anger the Chinese government. Recently a poll was conducted in 11 major European countries in which the majority population rejected China as their enemy which clearly shows that Europe is focused more on Russia, it is only the stance of the US against China as there are many interests of the US in this region like military bases in various countries, Diego Garcia and so on. Japan is not willing to join NATO but wants a NATO liaison office in Tokyo. Currently, NATO is doing air exercises with Japan amid Russia-Ukraine War.
Conclusion
This issue is very important for the geopolitics of the world, the expansion of NATO might affect several relations. China’s stance on this issue is very aggressive and it wants that NATO should be away from the Indo-Pacific Region. US-India relations can also hamper due to this but India should take its stance based on its foreign policy.
