NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is at the heart of questions about the war in Ukraine and the crisis between Russia and its European neighbours. What does this military and strategic alliance consist of? What role does France play there and what are the rules for assistance between members? The answer in seven key points.
“The United States will defend every inch of NATO territory,” Joe Biden said in a speech on Thursday February 24, 2022, the evening of the Russian offensive and the start of the war in Ukraine. This sentence of the American president reinforces a little more the questions on NATO, this military organization of which Vladimir Putin abhors the enlargement observed for several years. The Russian president is above all opposed to Ukraine joining NATO, which he perceives as a provocation and a threat to its borders. How does NATO work, what are the rules for assistance between its members, is France part of it and would it be obliged to react in the event of an attack on one of the NATO members? Here are some answers to see it more clearly.
What is NATO?
As its name suggests, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a political, strategic and military organization created in 1949 by 12 signatory countries of the treaty, including France. In the context of the birth of the Cold War, NATO aimed to create an alliance to strengthen security and collective defense between signatory countries. The objective was thus to counter the Soviet expansion in Europe after the Second World War by opposing it with a collective military force, but at the time largely dominated by the American army. Over time, NATO has expanded with new member countries including West Germany, the FRG, from 1955 and then countries from the former Eastern bloc after the disappearance of the USSR, such as Poland, the Baltic countries or Hungary at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century.
Is Ukraine a member of NATO?
No, this is one of the points of tension and one of the origins of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Since the Orange and 2013 revolutions, Ukraine has been seeking to get closer to the Western bloc and wants to join NATO, a desire reaffirmed in recent months by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a membership deemed unacceptable by Vladimir Putin who sees it as a threat to its borders.
What are the member countries of NATO?
30 countries are part of NATO in 2022, compared to 12 when it was created in 1949. Here is the list of current NATO members in alphabetical order:
- Albania, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, USA, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey.
- Three countries have recently applied to join the NATO alliance, without the talks leading to the moment: Georgia, Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
What are the last countries to join NATO?
Since the fall of the USSR and the Eastern bloc, NATO has clearly expanded towards Eastern Europe. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were the first to join NATO in 1999, followed by Bulgaria, the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004 and then by Albania and Croatia in 2009, Montenegro in 2017. The latest country to join NATO is North Macedonia in 2020.
What role does France play in NATO?
France joined NATO in 1949 but its history with the alliance is mixed. If France actively contributed to the creation of the Atlantic Alliance, the return of General de Gaulle to power in 1958 and the conduct of his policy of independence led to an opposition symbolized by the decision to withdraw from the integrated command of the NATO in 1965. France then remained a member of NATO but no longer made its forces available to the alliance. NATO headquarters, then located in Paris, left France for Brussels. A long rapprochement is made from the end of the 90s by Jacques Chirac. France is gradually returning to command, a decision finally ratified under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy by Parliament in March 2009 and then at the NATO summit of 3 and 4 April 2009. France has since participated in the integrated command of NATO but maintains its nuclear independence by not participating in meetings of NATO’s “Nuclear Planning Group”.
What does Rule 4 of the Washington Treaty governing NATO say?
Invoked several times since the creation of NATO, article 4 of the founding treaty of NATO consists of a consultation of its members. A member country can then bring to the attention of the North Atlantic Council any matter concerning in particular the security of a member country. “The parties will consult each other whenever, in the opinion of one of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of one of the parties will be threatened”, specifies the text present on thee NATO website. On February 24, 2022, Article 4 was thus invoked by Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia after Russia invaded Ukraine. .
What does Rule 5 of the Washington Treaty governing NATO say? What mutual assistance?
As indicated on its website, NATO includes among its flagship rules that of mutual assistance and collective defence. “NATO adheres to the principle that an attack on one or more of its members is considered an attack on all. This is the principle of collective defence, which is enshrined in Article 5 of the Treaty of the North Atlantic,” says NATO. A member country of NATO which would be attacked would benefit de facto from the military aid of the other members. This rule has only been applied once in the entire history of the body: it was the day after the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, NATO having taken part in operations in Afghanistan, leading from 2003 the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), under UN mandate.