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So, basically, someone said something in discussions but no documents were signed?

• ClumsyPilot 6y ago
  Do you think every sensitive political matter is documented and triple - stamped?
• MichaelMoser123 6y ago
  I was wondering about that; if Nato not exanding to the east was imortant, then why didn't the Soviet Union insist to put it into an agreement? I guess it's not quite possible to put such a future commitment of not expanding Nato into writing; as there is no legal mechanism to enforce it.
  • Someone 6y ago
    As the quote I pasted says: “Gorbachev’s reasoning could partially be explained by the domestic dilemma he faced: how could he tell the Politburo that he had asked for written guarantees that NATO would not expand to the territories of the Warsaw Pact while the Pact was still in existence? That would have meant he had already accepted the idea that the socialist alliance was on its deathbed” A good diplomat might have phrased that differently, without removing too much content, though, so that the Warschau pact wouldn’t lose face from it. Maybe something along the lines of that the two parties recognized each other’s spheres of influence? (Or maybe that wasn’t something either party was willing to commit to?)
    • MichaelMoser123 6y ago
      don't know about that argument, they could have insisted to put that commitment into some kind of secret amendment, but wikipedia says that these are no longer practiced; well, who knows, wikipedia also says that there are exceptions to this rule. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_treaty#Decline_in_modern_times https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_treaty#Decline_in_moder...