A queue to join NATO is meaningless. It is supposed to be the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, that's it. Sadly its morphed into something else now. Most of the new members are simply excess baggage, they bring very limited military capabilities to NATO but basically give us more territory to defend. adding them to NATO has made war more likely not less. Those eastern nations should have been kept as a loosely aligned buffer zone between east and west.
rh200, to help you understand the concept of spheres of influence, your country Australia is in the American sphere of influence, your government are essentially puppets of Washington. The same with Canada and Britain. Most European nations would be the same. Its all about control, keeping the US Empire going whatever the cost, that's basically what the US military industrial complex is all about. None of this is done for our benefit, we the people mean nothing at all to the leadership.
Sadly the west are bad guys now, after things like Iraq, Libya, Ukraine
and pushing for war in Syria etc. The other side may not be saints but they are compared to Washington.