75 tears ago today (April 4,
1949) the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – NATO (French: Organisation du
traité de l'Atlantique nord, OTAN) -was formed with the signing of the North
Atlantic Treaty.
NATO is an Intergovernmental Military
Alliance of 32 Member States—30 European and 2 North American.
NATO was 2 Official Languages:
English and French.
NATO’s Motto is: animus in
consulendo liber (Latin for 'a mind unfettered in deliberation'.)
NATO's Main Headquarters are
located in Brussels, Belgium, while NATO's Military Headquarters are near Mons,
Belgium.
Physical NATO: All Member States
together cover an area of 27,580,492 km2 (10,648,887 sq mi.)
The 32 NATO Member States have a
total of 969,619,192 People.
The United States has the largest
NATO Population with 338,229,980 People.
NATO’s Military: NATO has
a total of 8,507,776 Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen/women (3,869,402 Regular
Troops)
The United States has the largest
NATO Military Force with 1,598,287 Regular Soldiers and 1,072,543 Reserve
Soldiers.
Article 5: Article 5 of
the Treaty states that if an armed attack occurs against one of the Member States,
it shall be considered an attack against all Members, and other Members shall
assist the attacked member, with armed forces if necessary.
An attack on Hawaii (US), Puerto
Rico (US), US Virgin Islands (US), French Guiana (France), the Falkland Islands
(UK), Ceuta (Spain) or Melilla (Spain) would not trigger an Article 5 response.
Article 5 has only been used one
time after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in the United States.
NATO’s Expansion: NATO was
created by 12 Countries from Europe and North America (Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
the United Kingdom, and the United States) on April 4, 1949.
Since then, 20 more Countries
have joined NATO through 10 rounds of Enlargement: in 1952 (Greece and Turkey),
1955 (West Germany), 1982 (Spain), 1990 (East Germany), 1999 (Czech Republic,
Hungary, Poland), 2004 (Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia) , 2009 (Albania, Croatia), 2017 (Montenegro), 2020 (North Macedonia),
2023 (Finland) and 202 (Sweden.)
Russia is forbidden from joining
NATO.
Aspiring NATO Members: Bosnia
and Herzegovina (since 2018), Georgia (since 2018) and Ukraine (since 2022.)
Withdrawal from NATO: No
NATO Member Country has ever left since its founding in 1949. But they can
under Article 13 of the Treaty.
From 1965-2009 France left NATO’s
Military Command Structure, The NATO Headquarters in France was moved to Belgium.
The Former French Colony of Algeria
was part of NATO from 1949-1962 when it gained its Independence.
The Former British Colony of
Malta was part of NATO from 1949-1964 when it gained its Independence.
The Former British Colony of Cyprus
was part of NATO from 1949-1960 when it gained its Independence.
The Warsaw Pact: The
Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact in 1955 to counter NATO. It was
disbanded in 1991.
Members of the Warsaw Pact
were: Albania (from 1955-1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany
(from 1955- 1990), Hungary, Poland, Romania (from 1955-1961) and the Soviet
Union.
Former Communist Countries
that joined NATO: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, East
Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia,
Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
NATO won the Cold War (1945-1991)
when the Soviet Union collapsed.
NATO Military Operations: No
NATO Military Operations occurred during the Cold War.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-2004)
Serbia (1999)
Kosovo (1999- Present)
Afghanistan (2001-2021)
Operation Ocean Shield Counter Piracy
(2009-2016)
NATO’s Website:
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