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What is NATO and when is the alliance activated?

2022-01-27T18:34:34.031Z


NATO is a non-aggressive European and North American alliance created to promote peace and stability and acts in defense of its members.


The Russia-NATO conflict does not alter the lives of Ukrainians for this reason 2:10

(CNN) --

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to give it its full name, is a non-aggressive European and North American defense alliance created to promote peace and stability and safeguard the security of its members.


The organization, which is based in Brussels, Belgium, was created as the Cold War intensified.

Its objective was to protect the countries of Western Europe from the threat posed by the Soviet Union and to counteract the spread of communism after World War II.

In April 1949, its 12 founders - the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and eight other European nations - signed the North Atlantic Treaty, pledging to protect each other by political and military means.

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Since then, the alliance has grown: today it has 30 members.

In alphabetical order, they are: Albania, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United States, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia , Montenegro, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Romania and Turkey.

Since the end of the Cold War, more than a dozen countries from the former Eastern bloc, including three former Soviet republics, have joined the alliance.

Russia continues to see NATO as a threat despite the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Amid recent tensions with the West, Russia has asked for firm guarantees that the alliance will not expand further, something NATO members have resisted.

Despite the great geopolitical changes that have occurred since the founding of NATO, its objective remains the same.

The key principle on which the alliance is based is that of collective defense: "An armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America will be considered an attack against all of them."

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What does this mean in practice?

The principle of collective defense is included in article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

It ensures that the resources of the entire alliance can be used to protect any member nation.

This is crucial for many of the smaller countries, which would be helpless without their allies.

Iceland, for example, does not have a standing army.

Since the United States is the largest and most powerful member of NATO, any state in the alliance is effectively under the protection of the United States.

In fact, the first and only time Article 5 was invoked was after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States;

as a consequence, NATO allies joined the invasion of Afghanistan.

However, NATO has also acted on other occasions.

It launched collective defense measures in 1991 when it deployed Patriot missiles during the Gulf War, in 2003 during the Iraq crisis, and in 2012 in response to the situation in Syria, also with Patriot missiles.

All three were based on requests from Turkey.

The Russia-NATO conflict does not alter the lives of Ukrainians for this reason 2:10

Do you have your own army?

No. NATO depends on the contribution of forces from its member countries, which means that it is essentially only as strong as the individual forces of each nation.

It is in the interest of the entire coalition to ensure that each country dedicates sufficient resources to its defense.

This has been one of the main sticking points in the alliance, with the US and UK often criticizing other member states for not doing their fair share.

US military spending has always dwarfed the budgets of other allies since the founding of NATO in 1949. But the difference became much larger when the US increased its spending after the 9/11 attacks.

According to NATO guidelines, each country should spend 2% of its GDP on defense, but most countries are falling short of that goal.

Former US President Donald Trump was particularly eloquent on this issue, demanding European countries do more and, at one point, even suggesting that they "give back" the US its past deficits.

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According to the most recent NATO estimates, seven member states, Greece, the United States, Croatia, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Romania and France, will reach the 2% target in 2021.

Still, it's a significant improvement.

In 2014, only the US, UK and Greece spent more than 2%.

At that time, all member countries that were below the threshold pledged to increase military spending to reach the goal within a decade.

Most are keeping their promise.

How has the mission of the organization changed over time?

After the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO evolved and expanded.

Since then its members have served as peacekeepers in Bosnia, have fought against human trafficking and have been deployed to intercept refugees in the Mediterranean.

The Alliance is also responding to new ways in which conflicts can develop, for example by creating a cyber defense center in Estonia.

What could I do in Ukraine?

NATO already had troops in eastern Europe before the recent rise in tensions with Russia, but has increased its presence there in recent weeks.

According to NATO, there are currently four battalion-sized multinational battle groups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, on a rotating basis.

These battlegroups are led by the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and the United States.

NATO said on January 7 that they are "robust and combat-ready forces."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is prepared to quickly bolster that presence by sending additional forces and capabilities to the area.

The Biden administration has placed up to 8,500 US troops on high alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe.

More immediately, several NATO countries have begun sending arms and ammunition to Ukraine.

The United States has already shipped two arms shipments to Ukraine, including 300 Javelin anti-tank missiles, 800 bunker buster bombs and hundreds of thousands of rounds.

The United Kingdom delivered new light anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, and the Czech Republic government agreed on Wednesday to donate more than 4,000 152-millimeter artillery shells.

Why is Germany criticized?

Germany has recently come under fire for its policy of not exporting weapons to crisis areas.

So far, Germany has refused to send weapons to Ukraine, promising instead to give Kyiv a field hospital, medical training and 5,000 military helmets.

Germany's complicated history means its governments have always been wary of military spending and the idea of ​​getting directly involved in a conflict is a hard sell there.

It has also been criticized for missing the 2% of GDP spending target, along with other countries.

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"The German government has very clearly agreed that it will not send lethal weapons or deliveries of weapons to conflict zones because we do not want to fuel these conflicts any further," German Defense Secretary Christine Lambrecht said on Thursday.

Germany hosts more than 30,000 US military personnel and their families.

The UK came to Germany's defense on the issue on Thursday, with UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace saying his country does not judge Germany for its decision.

"The advantage of being in NATO is that there are 30 allies, so we can all help Ukraine in our own way," he said.

"Obviously the UK has taken the view that lethal defensive tactical assistance is something the Ukrainians need, but we don't sit around judging other countries," Wallace said.

-- CNN's Frederik Pleitgen and Nadine Schmidt contributed to this report.

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Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-01-27

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