The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, better known as NATO or NATO (for its acronym in English), is an international organization of a political and military nature, whose objective is to guarantee the security and freedom of its members. Currently made up of 31 countries following the recent accession of Finland, the Atlantic Alliance hopes to also welcome Sweden "as soon as possible" as a full member.
The origin of NATO dates back to April 4, 1949. After the end of World War II, 12 countries signed the Washington Treaty by which they agreed to create an Alliance and commit to defend each other in case of armed aggression against any of them.
NATO is currently made up of 31 countries. These are the 12 signatory countries of the Washington Treaty: the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, the United Kingdom and Portugal.
In 1952 Greece and Türkiye joined; the Federal Republic of Germany, in 1955; Spain, in 1982; Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, in 1999.
In 2004 Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined, and in 2009 it was the turn of Albania and Croatia. In 2017 Montenegro also joined and in 2020, Macedonia.
Finland officially joined NATO on April 4, 2023 after the fastest accession process in the organization's history. This country, like Sweden, has historically been reluctant to join the Atlantic Alliance, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 caused a change in geopolitical perspective and in May 2022 Finland and Sweden applied to join. Sweden will be the 32nd member of NATO as soon as ratification takes place in parliaments.
In addition, NATO maintains association agreements with around 40 countries that collaborate with the Alliance in activities related to security and defense.
One of the great protagonists in the crisis between Ukraine and Russia is NATO. Last December, the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, warned Moscow of the "costs" of invading Ukraine" during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. For his part, he assured that Russia he did not want "any conflict", but asked for something in exchange for solving the existing ones: no more NATO enlargements to the east.
The Alliance has had a close relationship with Ukraine since the country joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council in 1991 and the Partnership for Peace program in 1994.
In 2008 and with Viktor Yushchenko in power, Ukraine began its accession process by submitting its application to become a member of the Alliance in Brussels. However, in 2010 he changed the presidency of the country. Viktor Yanukovych arrived and relations with Europe cooled. It was something that Ukrainians did not like at all to the point that in 2014 the proposals known as Euromaidan were unleashed. Later the annexation of Crimea by Russia would come, returning the conflict to the country.
In 2017, the Ukrainian Parliament passed legislation reinstating NATO membership as a goal, and the country's Constitution was amended in the years since to meet the Alliance's requirements.
In 2020, the current president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, approved a National Security Strategy with the aim of joining NATO. An income that with the war in Russia has tried to accelerate. However, the representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, assured in October 2022, in an interview on Canal 24 Horas, that the annexation of Ukraine to NATO "is not a fundamental issue at this time". and advocated continuing to support the invaded country militarily, as well as continuing with the sanctions against Russia.
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