madam president enlargement of nato could be seen as one of the few true post-cold war success stories
however the momentum of enlargement has weakened
nato has remained rather hesitant in opening up to georgia or macedonia
military contributions have decreased alarmingly
very few nato members meet the two criteria for defence expenditure and the alliance has not conducted serious military exercises for more than one decade
the last such big exercise to prove that the us could move troops rapidly into europe took place seventeen years ago
true the soviet union has collapsed
however nato's credibility and potential still relies on us military might
it is vitally important that nato's military institutions remain well integrated and that military commanders from america and europe have the possibility to practice together
only under conditions of much closer and more determined transatlantic cooperation will the eu and nato be able to set a democratic international agenda over the next decade against the challenges of a multilateral world
i would also like to comment on the conclusions of the nato-russia council
it calls for a modernised partnership based on reciprocal confidence transparency and predictability
it may be taken as a declaration of goodwill
however we know that russia's military doctrine still views nato expansion into russia's neighbourhood as an aggression and justifies preventive military strikes and landings on foreign territories
big military exercises in autumn two thousand and nine in north-west russia close to the territories of the baltic states prepared for invasion of these states as a counter-attack presumably against nato actions
what is positive is that the baltic states finally got nato contingency plans for their defence as exposed also by wikileaks
georgia was invaded by russia and two of its autonomous territories practically annexed
just recently russia's missiles were deployed in these breakaway entities and russia continues massive spying in all western countries
when these spies are exposed it is the west that feels embarrassment not russia which decorates its spies openly with the highest state awards
therefore russian insistence on equality in relations with nato and some sort of joint decision-making is premature and carries a risk of a russian veto on nato's decisions and further enlargement
