Why in News?

• Recently Sweden and Finland have applied for integration into NATO.
• Initially Turkey was against this proposal but has now backed the proposal.
• Ukraine is also interested to join military alliance
• Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a 30-country regional security coalition that emerged from the cold war rivalry, met on June 29- 30 in Madrid, Spain.

About NATO

• It is a military alliance that was established on 4th April, 1949 with 12 member countries after Second World War to create counterweight against soviet army that was stationed in eastern and north European region.
• Headquarter of NATO is located in Brussels, Belgium while headquarter of allied command operations in Mons, Belgium.
• It is also known as Washington treaty.
• Now NATO has 30 member countries, last country which has joined this group was North Macedonia.

Objectives of NATO

NATO has basically two main objectives;

• Political Objective – NATO promotes democratic values among member countries and enables countries to consult and cooperate on security related issues so that mutual trust and sovereignty of member countries could put at the paramount level.
• Military Objective – NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis like management operations.
• The heart of NATO is expressed in article 5 of its constitution, in which every member countries agree that an armed attack on any member country shall be considered as an attack against all.

NATO’s Position Before On-going War

• It appeared to be weakened during the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
• A further blow came when President Joe Biden pulled his country’s troops out of Afghanistan.
• After disintegration of the USSR, Russia took over the empire as the main country and had been upping ante against NATO publicly since late 2000s.
• Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and invasion on Ukraine is going on steadily.

NATO’s Recent Developments

• NATO allies firmly committed to financing the organization’s military needs.
• Their combined defence investments have jumped by $130 billion from 2014-19.
• NATO has announced that it will increase its forces at high readiness from 40,000 to over 3, 00,000 troops by the mid-2023.
• Sweden and Finland are set to join NATO because of strategic insecurity they face as the neighbours of Russia. It is noted that previously both countries have maintained neutral position.
• Once they join military group, both countries have to spend 2% of their GDP as defence budget.

Way Forward

• While NATO appears fortified and ready to face the strategic gauntlet thrown down by Russia, there is a real risk that the people of its member- nations are getting increasingly frustrated.
• There is unending economic pain and the leaders have pledged to meet the burgeoning demand for weapons and other military support required by Ukraine to hold on to its territories in the east.