A two-day ministerial of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began Wednesday at the US State Department to mark 70 years since the creation of the military alliance
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th April, 2019) A two-day ministerial of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began Wednesday at the US State Department to mark 70 years since the creation of the military alliance.The 29 allies will discuss Russia, burden-sharing and counterterrorism, among other security issues.
The bloc was created to offset the Soviet military might and that of the 1955 Warsaw Treaty Organization, which was dissolved in 1991.
Russia has repeatedly accused NATO of eastward expansion, which contradicts commitments by Western leaders. NATO has violated international law, including the UN Charter and the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and Russia. NATO has several times throughout its history intervened in other countries without the consent of the UN Security Council or in violation of its mandate.
NATO is a military and political alliance of European countries, the United States and Canada. It is based on the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed in Washington on April 4, 1949.
Under the Treaty, the bloc provides defense to its member states both politically and militarily. Its declared goal is to safeguard the collective security of its member states in the Euro-Atlantic area.
NATO was established by 12 countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Four countries joined NATO between 1949 and the early 1980s. They are: Turkey and Greece in 1952, Germany in 1955, and Spain in 1982.
In 1958, French President Charles de Gaulle decided to pull France out of NATO. Over the next few years, it withdrew the Mediterranean Fleet, armed forces and air defense from NATO command. The United States scrapped its French military bases. French forces ceased to participate in NATO military operations.
During the talks on Germany's reunification in 1990, Western leaders made a promise to their Soviet counterparts that NATO would not expand eastward, but soon fell back on it.
NATO's expansion after the Cold War has been the largest so far, both in the number of new members admitted and in terms of the political consequences.
Under the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, NATO pledged to "carry out its collective defense and other missions by ensuring the necessary interoperability, integration, and capability for reinforcement rather than by additional permanent stationing of substantial combat forces."
The continued eastward deployment of NATO's military infrastructure has become one of the main points of contention in NATO-Russia relations. Three former Warsaw pact members - Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic - joined it in 1999, followed by Warsaw Pact's Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, as well as Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Slovenia in 2004.
The 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania approved the accession of Croatia and Warsaw Pact's Albania, which became full members on April 1, 2009 (known as the sixth enlargement). Also at the summit in Strasbourg in 2009, France returned to all NATO structures.
In June 2017, Montenegro officially became the 29th member of the alliance.
A significant part of the population of this former Yugoslav Republic was against joining the alliance. The results of a public opinion poll commissioned by the Montenegrin opposition showed that 54.7 percent opposed joining NATO, and 57.9 percent supported the idea of holding a referendum on accession. But Montenegro's 81-seat parliament voted 46-0 to ratify the membership agreement despite protests.
Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Georgia are among the main candidate countries for NATO membership.
Macedonia has been participating in the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP), a program of advice and assistance tailored to the individual needs of countries wishing to join the alliance, since 1999. The country was invited to join the bloc at the Bucharest summit in 2008 as long as it reached consensus with Greece in their year-long naming dispute.
In June 2018, Greece and Macedonia signed a much-criticized agreement that resolved the row and paved the way for Skopje to join NATO and the European Union. Many politicians consider the only purpose of the deal to expand NATO.
The agreement was brought to a referendum in Macedonia on September 30, 2018, which saw a turnout 37 percent, falling short of the required 50 percent. Some 91.5 percent of those who took part in the vote were in favor of the deal with Athens. It was then ratified by the parliaments of Macedonia and Greece.
On February 12, 2019, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia officially changed its name to North Macedonia.
On February 6, 2019, all NATO member states signed a protocol at the alliance's Brussels headquarters on North Macedonia's accession. The country will officially participate in NATO work but only as an invited member. As soon as all 29 NATO countries ratify the protocol, North Macedonia will become the 30th member of the alliance.
Bosnia and Herzegovina was invited to join the Membership Action Plan in 2010. NATO foreign ministers said they would back Bosnia and Herzegovina's first Annual National Program under the MAP on condition that all immovable defense property should be registered at the Federal level, including that in the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska.
Despite the fact that this condition has not yet been fulfilled, NATO has recently stepped up its efforts to have Bosnia and Herzegovina join the alliance.
In December 2018, NATO foreign ministers confirmed their readiness to accept the submission of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Annual National Program in order to activate the MAP. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo backed the country's accession.
Georgia is the only candidate to join NATO that has not yet received an action plan for membership. It was confirmed at the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008 that Georgia could become a member of the alliance in the future, provided that its standards were met.
In September 2008, the NATO-Georgia Commission for political consultations and practical cooperation was established to help in achieving the goal of NATO membership.
During the NATO summit in Wales on September 4-5, 2014, a package of measures which should have led the country towards NATO membership was approved. Joint military exercises are regularly held in Georgia as part of the package of measures.
In March 2019, US President Donald Trump said he considered the possibility of Brazil joining NATO.
"I intend to designate Brazil as a major non-NATO ally, or even possibly � if you start thinking about it � maybe a NATO ally," Trump said after meeting with his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro.
The status of a major non-NATO ally allows joint development and research with the Pentagon, joint participation in counter-terrorism programs, purchase of depleted uranium anti-tank rounds from the United States, permission to use US financing for the purchase or leasing of weapons, reciprocal training, export of space equipment and gives other military and financial advantages.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the Russian Foreign Ministry would study Trump's statement about Brazil's possible inclusion in the organization. "I would like to point out, as a general observation, that the NATO organization stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," Ryabkov added.
At the 2010 summit meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, NATO leaders adopted a new Strategic Concept, the bloc's roadmap for the next ten years.
NATO has several programs, the most important being the Partnership for Peace (PfP). The political framework for NATO's relations with the PfP countries is provided by the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), which brings together 50 countries, 29 of which are NATO member states and partner countries, including Russia.
The North Atlantic Council is NATO's main political decision-making body. It is made up of high-level envoys from each member country and is chaired by the Secretary General.
The Defense Planning Committee, which meets twice a year, is the highest military and political body of the organization. NATO defense ministers hold regular meetings within the Nuclear Planning Group to discuss nuclear-related political issues.
The basic element of NATO's military structure are the Military Committee of the member countries' chiefs of general staff, its executive body - the International Military Staff, and two major elements of the military command structure - Allied Command Operations and Allied Command Transformation.
The daily operations of all NATO organizations and agencies are guided by the International Staff chaired by the Secretary General, who is appointed by the governments of the member states. The Secretary General chairs the North Atlantic Council and all other key bodies.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who held the post of Secretary General since 2009, was replaced by Jens Stoltenberg in October 2014.
NATO headquarters are located in Brussels, Belgium. The official opening of the headquarters took place on October 16, 1967.
The military budget of the NATO member countries for 2019 amounts to $1.57 billion, and the civil budget is $281.5 million.
NATO has taken part in several military operations in Europe and the middle East since its creation.
NATO's first large-scale military engagement was in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995 and was codenamed Operation Deliberate Force. It was in response to a Sarajevo market explosion that was blamed on Serbs.
NATO shelled the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska's forces to reduce its military capability. The operation was not authorized by a UN Security Resolution and relied on the Memorandum of Understanding between the Commander of the NATO force in Southern Europe and UN force Commander in former Yugoslavia.
The document laid out the specifics of the military operation against the Serbs and contained a list of stationery targets. Two permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia and China, were not aware of its terms.
In 1999, NATO carried out Operation Allied Force against Yugoslavia in violation of the UN Charter and without a mandate from the UN Security Council, using the alleged presence of Serbian troops in Kosovo and Metohija as a pretext for launching a military campaign. The Serbian authorities were accused of ethnic cleansing after a mass killing of civilians occurred in the village of Racak in January 1999. Albanian separatists accused the Yugoslav military of massacring civilians. Belgrade called it a battle, saying 40 Albanian militants were killed. A probe by experts from Belarus, Finland and Serbia in the presence the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) representatives confirmed that all those killed were militants.
In turn, Helena Ranta, the Finnish pathologist who led the European Union's team of investigators, claimed that the victims were unarmed civilians, who were shot and killed.
Despite OSCE-confirmed expert reports, NATO launched the operation as a humanitarian intervention.
According to varying reports, NATO conducted between 37,500 and 38,400 flights, attacking 900 targets in Serbia and Montenegro, and dropping 21,000 bombs, including depleted-uranium bombs, which are banned by the UN.
The exact number of military and civilian casualties is still to be determined. Serbian authorities estimate that some 2,500 people died in the airstrikes, including 89 children, and 12,500 were wounded. Human Rights Watch confirmed 90 civilian deaths as a result of NATO airstrikes, while NATO's figures for Operation Allied Force stand at between 489 and 528 people.
In 2001, Operation Enduring Freedom was launched in Afghanistan by the US Armed Forces and the troops of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) under NATO command. About 104,000 people have been killed, including over 31,000 civilians, and some 40,000 were wounded. More than 2,400 US soldiers and over 1,000 international coalition soldiers were killed during the hostilities.
ISAF had 139,000 troops in Afghanistan. The US-led NATO coalition completed its military mission in Afghanistan on December 31, 2014 with the operation entering a new non-military stage on January 1, 2015. US President Barack Obama said on July 6 that 8,400 US troops will stay in Afghanistan to train Afghani security forces throughout his term.
In 2011, a NATO-led international coalition carried out Operation Unified Protector in Libya. Military intervention in Libya was made possible after the adoption by the UN Security Council of Resolution 1973 on March 17, 2011 that was aimed at protecting civilians in a crackdown of the country's authorities against the armed opposition. Russia abstained from voting.
This provided NATO with a pretext for conducting airstrikes against a government that had been in place for more than 40 years. The civil war that followed led to the death of leader Muammar Gaddafi on October 20, 2011 near his home town of Sirte.
NATO ended its operation in Libya on October 31, 2011. There are reports that the operation left 40,000 people dead.
At the same time, the country, which at that time was one of the most developed and stable in Africa in terms of security, fell apart and turned into a haven for terrorists and radical groups. The civil war in Libya continues.
The NATO member states' forces have been carrying out military operations targeting terrorists in Syria in Iraq, including the Islamic State (banned in Russia), as part of a US-led international coalition of 68 nations since 2014. The alliance is not part of the coalition.
A NATO-Russia Founding Act was signed in Paris in May 1997, stating that the two "do not consider each other as adversaries."
The act stipulated non-deployment of nuclear weapons or major NATO military forces in the territory of new NATO members. Relations between NATO and Russia soured after Crimea's reunification with Russia in March 2014.
On March 5, 2014, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen declared that NATO would put an entire range of NATO-Russia cooperation under review but would be ready to maintain ambassadorial contacts in the NATO-Russia Council.
On April 1, 2014, NATO foreign ministers reaffirmed the decision to suspend practical and military cooperation between NATO and Russia but kept contacts in place within the NATO-Russia Council at the level of ambassadors and above.
After an almost two-year hiatus, the NATO-Russia Council held meetings in Brussels on April 20, July 13 and December 19, 2016 at the level of permanent representatives at the NATO initiative. In 2017, council meetings at the ambassadorial level were held three times: on March 30, July 13 and on October 26. In 2018, the meetings of the NATO-Russia Council were held twice: on May 31 and on October 31. In 2019, the regular meeting of the council was held in Brussels on January 25.
In May 2015, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared that the number of exercises and patrols on NATO's eastern borders would be increased and that the alliance was implementing "the biggest reinforcement of its collective defense since the end of the Cold War," in the light of security threats to the member states on its eastern and southern borders.
Experts interviewed by Sputnik believe that statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg about the readiness to expand the protection of the Baltic states, as well as plans to increase the number of exercises at the eastern borders, confirm that the alliance intended to revise the NATO-Russia Founding Act signed in 1997.
On July 14, 2016, NATO leaders met for an annual summit in the Polish capital of Warsaw. They agreed that the military alliance would send multinational battalions to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland at the request of these countries.
NATO also was decided that the contingent of the battalion stationed in Latvia would be represented by Canada; by Germany in Lithuania; by the United Kingdom in Estonia; and by the United States in Poland.
According to experts, the decision to deploy four NATO battalions in the Baltic States and Poland indicates a gradual implementation of the alliance's plan to build up its military infrastructure and the number of troops on the eastern frontiers, the result of which could be its withdrawal from the NATO-Russia Founding Act.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said NATO's actions near Russia's borders were aimed at "undermining a military parity that has formed over decades."
The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that strengthening NATO's military potential near Russia's borders threatens stability and security in Europe.
