> You cannot even begin NATO application without an invitation. That's a formality, which usually happens in the final stage of negotiations. EE countries that

> You cannot even begin NATO application without an invitation. That's a formality, which usually happens in the final stage of negotiations. EE countries that joined NATO got the invitation 1-2 years before officially becoming members, while negotiations usually took around 5-10 years. After everything has been negotiated, NATO sends a formal invitation, which is followed by signing the formal application, and the decision to accept that application is then ratified by parliaments of NATO countries (can take up to a year). It's dead wrong to depict this as existing members "expanding" NATO and dragging other countries in. > Regardless of the initiative of non-members any member could have blocked the expansion of the alliance simply because it was a time of peace and there are no agressions by Russia. If you saw Russia as a peaceful country, then there was no reason to oppose, because accepting EE wouldn't increase commitments in any significant way, while membership requirements like civilian oversight over armed forced made the new members more stable and contributed to peace in Europe. Opposing new members would've made more sense if you expected war from Russia, because mutual defense pact would drag you into the conflict too. So in a way, joining NATO was calling NA/WEU bluff: "If you think there's no threat from Russia, sign a mutual defense pact with us." > As for the rest of what you said, it only applies to conventional warfare. Nothing changed regarding nuclear weapons. In the 1997 founding treaty between NATO and Russia, it was agreed upon that NATO would not station nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe and NATO has kept that promise. Given the technological edge of western weapons over Russian arsenal, I don't think there is any difference if nukes are a thousand miles more in one direction or the other. I believe stationing nuclear weapons in EE is important to Russia only because it would lead to very serious escalation if Russia invaded those countries and Russia took control of American, French or British nuclear weapons.