In November, 2019, President Emmanuel Macron of France described Nato as "brain dead", stressing what he sees as waning commitment to the transatlantic alliance by its main guarantor, the US.
Interviewed by the Economist, he cited the US failure to consult Nato before pulling forces out of northern Syria. He also questioned whether Nato was still committed to collective defence, according to Paris-based France Press Agency (AFP).
At that time, Russia, which sees Nato as a threat to its security, welcomed the French president's comments as "truthful words". On contrary, Nato responded by saying the alliance remains strong.
"What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of Nato," Macron told the London-based newspaper.
He warned European members that they could no longer rely on the US to defend the alliance, established at the start of the Cold War to bolster Western European and North American security.
The French leader urged Europe to start thinking of itself as a "geopolitical power" to ensure it remained "in control" of its destiny.
In 1999, NATO invited Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania to join it. This was the beginning of the expansion of the NATO, and the weak Russia had no reaction in that period; Because it was just out of the old world of the Soviet Union.
In 2004, NATO invited the Baltic states to become part of the alliance, which are small countries, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, along with Romania.
In that period, Russia recovered, and Vladimir Putin came to power, however, Russia did not react by force until when NATO, in its statement in April 2008, called on both Georgia and Ukraine to join the alliance.
Then Putin responded, warning NATO that encouraging Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO is the biggest strategic mistake committed by the alliance.
When the diplomatic response in April was not heard, Russia's military response came three months later, when Moscow launched a punitive war on Georgia which is still suffering from its consequences until now.
"The war on Georgia came as a result of Russian fears of the extension of both NATO and the European Union to its doorstep, and when diplomacy failed, Putin was left with no choice but war. And so it is now in Ukraine," according to well-known scholar Mamoun Fendy.
Fendy is an Egyptian-born American scholar. He is president of the think tank London Global Strategy Institute, a former senior fellow at the Baker Institute, the United States Institute of Peace, and at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
He noted in his article published in Asharq Awsaat on March 14, entitled: "Is the West responsible for Putin's entry into Ukraine?,"The West was moving on three axes: the expansion of NATO, the expansion of the European Union, and the use of democracy as a cover for regime change... From this point of view, Russia's invasion of Ukraine came; not for expansion; Rather, it aims to stop the expansion of NATO and the expansion of the European Union into Russia's vital field."
Calling Russia’s moves “a brutal act of war,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the alliance plans to send more troops east “in the coming days and weeks.” He said the alliance had activated defense plans to help ensure that there is no spillover into any NATO member country, but he did not disclose what that means.
“Russia has attacked Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told journalists from NATO headquarters in Brussels. “Peace in our continent has been shattered, according to the Washington Post.
The alliance also promised Ukraine to help it defend against cyberattacks and would provide it with secure communications equipment for the military command.
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