this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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I guess then it becomes a scramble for anyone on their borders not already in NATO to get their applications in before they launch their next "special operation".
Georgia, Aserbaijan. Then don't forget the east, that is, the -stans and Mongolia. China and Japan are safe and who even wants NK.
The stans traditionally looked towards China for protection (also see Silk Road initiative) but they're making moves to make themselves more palatable to the west. Mongolia is the odd one out they're actually a proper democracy, and very much NATO-aligned though they (just like Japan) don't qualify because geography. They'll continue being a buffer state between Russia and China as long as they're west-aligned neither will suspect them to be in bed with the other.
Last one in Europe other than those two. Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea all remain in Asia. None are likely to join NATO anytime soon. Georgia may be the most likely, but they have the same problem with outstanding Russian occupation that Ukraine has/had going into 2022. Azerbaijan is aligned with Turkey, who is a NATO member, but does not have contiguous borders with NATO. Kazakhstan has distanced itself from the Ukraine invasion, but is otherwise more similar to Belarus than Finland in terms of alignment. China and North Korea have nukes. Mongolia is up shit creek without a paddle hoping that China and Russia continue to rival each other enough to not want the other to expand into Mongolia really