Ex-Nato Chief Says Bloc Committed 2 Mistakes With Regard To Ukraine

Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said NATO made a mistake by not agreeing to grant Ukraine and Georgia a membership action plan in 2008, which "sent the wrong message to Putin."

According to Rasmussen, who headed the bloc from 2004 to 2014, NATO also overestimated the strength of the Russian military, which, despite its huge investments, remains very weak.

"We made the mistake many years ago. The first mistake was back in 2008 when we had a NATO summit in Bucharest in which we decided that Ukraine and Georgia will become members of NATO. But we couldn’t agree on granting them a so-called membership action plan. And this split within NATO sent the wrong message to Putin, who attacked Georgia a few months after in August 2008," Rasmussen told Foreign Policy.

The other mistake, according to Rasmussen, was in 2014 after the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea. Though NATO introduced some sanctions, they were mild. "And all that gave Putin the impression that he could, almost without any cost, continue and grab land by force. So, we have made many mistakes. We have been too naive for too long," the former Danish Prime Minister added.

He added Ukraine must win this war as a Russian win will make Putin go for Moldova and Georgia, and "eventually also put pressure on the three Baltic states."

Rasmussen also dismissed theories that the root cause of Russian aggression is NATO expansion. He said NATO had not conducted a campaign for enlargement.

"What has happened is that former communist dictatorships in East and Central Europe applied for membership of NATO to get security guarantees. And once they fulfilled the necessary criteria, of course, they were invited to join our organization, according to the open-door policy. So instead of accusing NATO of being the problem, I think people should reflect debate on why is it that Russia’s neighbors, time and again, want membership of NATO to get security guarantees," he told the news outlet.

The former chief also dismissed French President Emmanuel Macron's comment that the West shouldn’t "humiliate" Putin. "We cannot save Putin from humiliation. The cost of face-saving for Mr. Putin will be much higher than an outright defeat for the Russian troops in Ukraine," he added.

Rasmussen added that appeasement with dictators does not lead to peace but to "war and conflict because they only respect the language of power, strength and unity."