NATO: The eastward expansion of NATO - timeline
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Timeline
- February 2008 The US and Germany clash over the latter’s refusal to move its 3,200-strong contingent to the war-torn south of Afghanistan. Canada threatens to withdraw its contingent if other NATO members do not contribute to the mission.
- February 2008 Russian envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin warns Poland against stationing US anti-missile interceptors on its soil, as part of a planned US defence shield.
- January 2008 US and Poland sign an agreement allowing the USA to base 10 missile interceptors on Polish territory in exchange for a US pledge to protect Polish airspace.
- November 2007 Russian President Vladimir Putin suspends his country’s involvement in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty (which fostered Russia-NATO co-operation in troop and hardware deployment).
- June 2007 Tension mounts between Russia and the USA and allies over several issues, including NATO construction of missile defenses in the Czech Republic and Poland.
- May 2007 An EU-Russia Council summit fails to achieve progress in the renewal of the EU-Russian partnership and concludes without a joint statement.
- October 2006 Russia takes punitive action on former Soviet republic Georgia as relations deteriorate over Russian support for the breakaway province of Abkhazia. Georgia is considered as a candidate to join NATO.
- December 2005 NATO agrees to expand its peacekeeping role in Afghanistan after European alliance members extract a pledge from the USA regarding humane treatment of prisoners.
- February 2005 NATO expands its mission in Afghanistan, agreeing in principle to put all Western troops in the country under NATO command.
- October 2003 The UN Security Council approves a resolution authorising the expansion of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
- October 2003 NATO inaugurates its first rapid reaction force, combining air, land, and sea operations and being deployed acting anywhere in the world. Plans are made to make it fully operational with 20,000 troops in 2006.
- February 2003 A major division among alliance members develops over the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, with the anti-war camp led by France and Germany.
- November 2002 NATO members invite Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia to join NATO in 2004. Each country except Slovenia is a former member of the Warsaw Pact.
- May 2002 The Rome Declaration inaugurating a new relationship between NATO members and Russia: the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) is signed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the USA. Russian President Putin expresses his country’s intention to become a part of Western political and security structures. An arms reduction treaty with the USA is signed at a Russia-US summit in Moscow.
- February 2000 The EU plans an autonomous capacity to take decisions and, where NATO as a whole is not engaged, to launch and conduct EU-led military operations in response to international crises.
- July 1999 A NATO-led peacekeeping force, KFOR, and the transitional UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) take control of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo.
- May 1999 After 78 days of air raids in Serbia, NATO is forced to admit to hitting civilians on several occasions. The outgoing chairman of NATO's military committee publicly states that the lack of co-ordination among the alliance’s 19 members was one of the air campaign's failings.
- March 1999 Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary are formally admitted into NATO institutions. They are all former members of the communist Warsaw Pact.
- March 1999 NATO begins 78-day bombing campaign against military, infrastructure and civilian sites to stop Serbian ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
- January 1999 Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, and Italy sign a treaty in Athens (the capital of Greece) on establishing a 4,000-strong peacekeeping brigade to serve in the Balkans.
- July 1997 The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, are invited to join NATO. NATO Secretary General Javier Solana cites Slovenia, Romania, and the three Baltic States as candidates for a future round of expansion.
- May 1997 After six months of negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeni Primakov and NATO Secretary General Solana sign a historic agreement establishing the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council. The council gives Russia a consultative role in discussion of matters of mutual interest. Russia assents to the eastward expansion of NATO but Russian President Boris Yeltsin says his country maintains a "negative attitude" to the expansion.
- February 1997 Russian Chief of Staff Anatoly Chubais says NATO enlargement would be tolerable to Russia only if a binding friendship treaty were to be signed and nuclear weapons not be stationed in former eastern bloc countries.
- June 1996 NATO foreign ministers agree to implement the Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) concept in response to the diminished East-West threat. Part of the initiative is to allow European alliance members to establish task forces that would design and carry out military missions independent of the USA.
- December 1995 The UN Protection Force hands over peacekeeping command in Bosnia-Herzegovina to NATO’s Implementation Force (IFOR).
- November 1995 NATO implements IFOR under a UN mandate to enforce military aspects of the Bosnian peace agreement.
- September 1995 NATO rapidly intensifies aerial attacks on Bosnian Serb commander Radko Mladic’s forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This leads to rapid concessions regarding territorial integrity in favour of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
- August 1995 NATO unleashes air attacks against Bosnian Serb targets after Serb troops capture two UN safe havens, Srebrenica and Zepa.
- May 1995 The European Parliament (EP) approves a resolution agreeing that the Western European Union (WEU) would become incorporated into the EU.
- February 1994 Russia offers to participate in the "Partnerships for Peace" programme of co-operation with NATO. Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev also accuses former Warsaw Pact states of exaggerating the Russian threat in order to secure swift admission to NATO.
- November 1993 Foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Belgium inaugurate Eurocorps, and announce plans to expand the unit to 50,000 within two years. The unit is an extension of the Franco-German brigade established in 1989.
- October 1993 A US proposal envisions preliminary military co-operation between NATO and individual eastern European countries, to be known as "Partnerships for Peace".
- December 1991. The Soviet Union collapses; Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev resigns; the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is formed, with 11 former Soviet republics as members.
- November 1991 At the North Atlantic Council meeting in Rome, NATO discusses how to guide the alliance into the post-Cold War world and extends invitations to several former eastern bloc foreign ministers to discuss closer co-operation.
- February 1991 Warsaw Pact signatories agree to dissolve the organisation.
- October 1990 East Germany (the German Democratic Republic--GDR) ceases to exist, as its constituent Länder (states) join West Germany.
- January 1990 East Germany ceases to be a communist country.
- October 1989 Soviet influence subsides in central European satellite states as refugees are allowed to move from the eastern bloc into western Europe.
- November 1982 Led by US President Ronald Reagan, NATO brandishes at the Soviet Union a robust nuclear threat, threatens to increase spending on conventional defences and maintains a "two-track" strategy of maintaining negotiations between the USA and the Soviet Union aimed at reducing nuclear weapons, while at the same time deploying new US intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe.
- May 1982 NATO admits its 16th member, Spain.
- December 1979 NATO determines that it will deploy Pershing II launchers and ground-launched cruise missiles if negotiations on arms reduction with the Soviet Union fail to produce a satisfactory result.
- May 1978 NATO defence ministers endorse action to strengthen and improve NATO forces to counter Soviet military power.
- November 1968 NATO denounces the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, adding that it is a major setback to German and European reunification and to the policy of détente.
- August 1968 A full-scale military invasion of Czechoslovakia is launched by the armed forces of the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and Bulgaria. All major Czechoslovakian cities are occupied within hours. NATO does not respond militarily.
- 1966-1967 France withdraws from NATO’s integrated military command. US and Canadian troops leave France; France pulls all troops back into French territory. NATO military and political institutions exit France, which remains in NATO for nuclear and political co-operation. Negotiations ensue after its withdrawal.
- February 1966 French President Charles de Gaulle announces forthcoming French withdrawal from NATO’s integrated armed command. In earlier speech, de Gaulle says the action is needed to prevent loss of national autonomy and French subservience to the USA.
- December 1964 A North Atlantic Council meeting of foreign ministers issues communiqué refusing to disarm unilaterally.
- October 1962 NATO members Germany, Canada, and Turkey pledge solidarity with the USA during the Cuban missile crisis. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko claims that there was no aggressive intent in the deployment of Soviet missiles on Cuba. Harold Macmillan, the Prime Minister of the UK, describes the deployment as "a deliberate adventure designed to test the ability and determination of the United States".
- May 1957 Russian Prime Minister Nikolai Bulganin deplores the remilitarisation of Western Germany and professes "profound concern" over the basing of nuclear missiles on Spanish territory, alluding to Gen. Francisco Franco’s alliance with Nazi Germany during the Spanish Civil War.
- November 1956 NATO does not react militarily as the Soviet Union crushes the Hungarian revolution. Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Alfred Gruenther says the likelihood of NATO intervention in any country behind the iron curtain is "slight". He nevertheless renews the threat of massive nuclear retaliation against the Soviet Union in case the Soviet Union uses its nuclear arsenal.
- April 1956 French Prime Minister Guy Mollet tells a newspaper that he thinks NATO and US policy of escalating armament is too hostile toward the Soviet Union.
- May 1955 The Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania sign the Warsaw Treaty, establishing united military command for the armed forces, known as the Warsaw Pact. The group condemns the USA and NATO for rearming West Germany.
- March 1955 West Germany is officially incorporated into NATO.
- January 1955 The Soviet Union pledges to assist in German unification if West Germany renounces its treaty with NATO.
- November 1954 The Soviet Union convenes with Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania to establish a military alliance.
- October 1954 Foreign ministers from the 14 NATO countries sign a treaty of intent to create a new independent West Germany out of the three zones occupied by France, UK, and the USA, and to integrate the new German state into NATO.
- September 1954 NATO member states say they remain committed to common defence and integration after the French Parliament rejects the European Defence Community (EDC) out of fear of German rearmament.
- September 1953 Partition of Germany into eastern and western territories marks a similar division of Europe. US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles makes adversarial remarks about the Soviet Union as partition becomes imminent.
- June 1953 A demonstration against Soviet rule by 100,000 inhabitants of East Berlin triggers Soviet repression. NATO does not respond.
- February 1952 Greece and Turkey are admitted to NATO, and attend their first North Atlantic Council meeting as full members.
- February 1952 Three West European countries approve in principle the EDC. French Foreign Minister Robert Schumann says the EDC is designed to dispel the tradition of suspicion and distrust between France and Germany.
- February-July 1951 European countries hold negotiations to establish an integrated European army, which would include contributions from member countries, including Germany. The concept, proffered by the French government, envisaged an evolution toward a commonly commanded army that would gradually replace national armies.
- April 1949 Foreign ministers from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the UK and the US, sign the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, DC. The North Atlantic Treaty, the founding document for NATO, states that "an armed attack against one or more of the European signatories or the North American signatories would be considered an attack against all of them".
- April 1948-April 1949 The Soviet Union blockades the three western portions of Berlin, which are enclaves in Soviet-controlled East Germany.
- March 1948 The Western European Union (WEU) is created to provide for collective defence to counter Soviet expansionism in a treaty signed at Brussels by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the UK.
- June 1947 The Soviet Union rejects participation in the US-financed Marshall Plan for the economic recovery of Europe, saying it is an attempt by the USA to establish hegemony over sovereign European countries.
- May 1945 World War II ends in Europe: German surrender is announced. UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces victory in Europe.
