NATO has been in news ever since Russian action in Ukraine started. Amid rising tensions between the US and China again amid the spy balloon incident, NATO has said that China is closely watching to see the ‘price to be paid by Russia’ for its aggression.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China not to repeat its “irresponsible act” of sending spy balloons into US airspace as he held rare talks late Saturday with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi.
The US is on alert after a giant white Chinese balloon was seen over a series of secret nuclear weapons sites before being shot off the east coast on February 4. The incident caused Blinken to abruptly call off a rare trip to China. After four years of hostile relations with China under his predecessor, Donald Trump, Biden has made it a priority to reset ties with Beijing.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also prompted Western powers to take a wary eye on relations between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who call each other “friends”. NATO “Beijing is watching closely what price Russia pays, or what it gets, for its aggression,” premier Jens Stoltenberg said.
But what is NATO and is it still relevant today?
about nato
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also known as the Washington Treaty) on April 4, 1949, which allowed Soviet troops stationed in Central and Eastern Europe after the following Tried to retaliate for. World war II
Its founding members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Greece and Turkey (1952); West Germany (1955; as Germany since 1990); Spain (1982); Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999); Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004); Albania and Croatia (2009); Montenegro (2017); and North Macedonia (2018) joined the original signatories (2020). France left the Unified Military Command of NATO in 1966, but remained a member of the organization. Britannica, In 2009, it returned to NATO military command.
Finland and Sweden, both of which have long been neutral, have been asked to formally join NATO in 2022.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty expresses the heart of NATO, in which signatory countries agree that:
“An armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be deemed to be an attack against all of them; and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, the United Nations shall assist the party or parties so attacked, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United States, by the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area taking such action as may be necessary, individually and in conjunction with other parties, including immediately.”
Article 4 and 5
According to Article 4 According to NATO’s charter, member states “shall provide together” whenever, in the judgment of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence, or security of any other member is threatened.
According to an explanation on the NATO website, it creates a forum for members to “share ideas and information, and discuss matters before reaching consensus and taking action”. mechanism to avoid armed conflict.
Since NATO’s founding in 1949, Article 4 has been invoked seven times. It was used to host discussions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Romania and Slovakia, according to a report. Washington Post They say.
If Article 4 is invoked, member states are not compelled to intervene, although there may be deliberations in the decision to take joint NATO action.
According to Article 5, The signatories to the NATO treaty “agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against all.”
According to the treaty, each NATO member “shall take necessary action, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic region.” The coalition also authorized an armed response, although the language is broad and allows for alternative types of action.
The collective defense provision has only been invoked once, after the 9/11 attacks.
Relevance of NATO today
In the midst of the Russia-Ukraine war and a volatile geopolitical situation, NATO’s actions have gained relevance in the past months.
Recently, Finnish PM Sanna Marin said that Finland still wants to join NATO along with Sweden, despite Turkey objecting to its neighboring country’s membership bid. “We have sent a very clear signal and a very clear message to Turkey and Hungary that we want to enter NATO together and it is in everyone’s interest,” Marin told the Munich Security Conference.
“We want to engage with Sweden at the same time. It is not only because we are good neighbors and partners, it is also linked to very concrete matters – NATO’s security plan,” she said.
Finland and Sweden abandoned decades of military non-alignment and applied to join a US-led defense coalition in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The organization also warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the dangers of Europe’s over-reliance on authoritarian regimes and should serve as a lesson.
with inputs from afp
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