April 4, 1949, 75 years ago, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed. On its basis, the international collective defense alliance NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded, consisting of 12 countries: the USA, Belgium, Great Britain, Holland, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal and France.
In 1952, Greece joined the union, in 1955 – Germany, in 1982 – Spain. In 1999, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were the first former socialist countries to join NATO, in 2004 – Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Estonia, and in the spring of 2009 – Albania and Croatia.
On April 4, 2023, Finland became the 31st member state of NATO, its accession added 1,300 kilometers to the alliance’s border with the Russian Federation.
Currently, there are 32 NATO members, and 5 states participate in NATO’s partnership expansion programs.
The British military and political figure, General Hastings Lionel Ismay, became the first Secretary General of NATO. It is he who is credited with the statement regarding the goals of creating NATO: “Prevent the USSR from entering Europe, ensure the American presence there and prevent Germany from raising its head.”
Currently, one of the declared goals of the military-political union is to ensure deterrence of any form of aggression against the territories of NATO member states or protection against it.
All members of the Alliance contribute funds to the general budget based on the financial burden distribution formula based on the GDP of each country.
The military expenditures of all NATO members make up more than 70% of the world total. The annual official budget of the union is about 200 billion euros, it is divided into civil and military.
Of all the NATO countries, only five are among the ten strongest armies in the world – these are the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Turkey. At the same time, the army of Luxembourg is considered the weakest in Alliance, the number of its military is 450 people, and the annual military budget reaches $370 million (about $800,000 per soldier annually). Simultaneously Iceland is the only member that does not have its own standing army.
In addition to military tasks, NATO deals with threats such as piracy, cyber-attacks and terrorism, and has its own phonetic alphabet known as the ICAO alphabet.
Israel was the first country outside of Europe and North America to be offered NATO membership, but the arrangements were not achieved.
Only once in its history – after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the USA – the Alliance referred to Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, according to which an armed attack on one of the NATO countries is considered an unfriendly act against all.
