Germany: Steinmeier celebrates 60 years of NATO membership

NATO was founded to "keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier reminded the public as he spoke at the celebration of 60-years of German membership to NATO, at the Foreign Office building in Berlin, Tuesday. Steinmeier, who mentioned he was "happy about 60 years of membership to NATO," explained that Germany was still seen "with a maximum level of distrust" when it joined the NATO, only ten years after the Nazi dictatorship. He went on to reflect how Germany has developed and is now, he claimed, "a free and sovereign country, steadily anchored in the circle of big democracies in this world." West Germany was incorporated into NATO on May 9, 1955 - just one decade after the end of WWII. One of the main reasons for Germany's entry was its strategically important geographical position and manpower against the background of a feared Soviet invasion of the West.