NATO defense ministers will meet next week to review the alliance's decades-long policy toward Russia. This process is taking place against the background of a significant escalation of tensions between the alliance and the Kremlin, especially after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Politico reports , relations between NATO and Russia have sunk to their lowest level since the Cold War. The alliance officially called Russia "the biggest and most direct threat to the security of the allies." In response, the Kremlin continues to argue that NATO's eastward expansion poses an existential threat to Russia.
NATO-Russia Founding Act: Time for change?
Despite the sharp deterioration of relations, NATO still adheres to the "Basic Act" signed with Russia in 1997. Then both sides undertook to work on a "stable, peaceful and undivided Europe". However, many in the alliance doubt the feasibility of further compliance with this document. Relations between NATO and Russia have already deteriorated so much that the body for cooperation - the Russia-NATO Council - has not met since 2022.
Currently, there are discussions about the need to create a new strategy that would reflect the realities of today. One of the high-ranking representatives of the United States noted: "It is time to develop a new strategy with clear positions of the allies." But there is no draft of such a strategy yet, as NATO countries collect opinions and ideas from 32 member states.
Disagreements within the alliance
However, not all NATO countries perceive the prospect of radical changes in policy towards Russia in the same way. Some diplomats fear that an overly aggressive new strategy could destabilize the situation in Russia. In addition, the positions of the member states regarding interaction with Russia differ significantly.
In particular, Hungary and Slovakia remain the NATO countries that continue to maintain contacts with the Kremlin. They consider cooperation with Russia to be strategically important, which worries many other members of the alliance. Such different approaches make it difficult to develop a single strategy capable of uniting all NATO countries.
Currently, it remains an open question whether the alliance will be able to find a balance between security challenges and a political strategy that would take into account both the threats and the desire of individual countries for stability.
