NATO Marks 70th Anniversary

By: Yassmine ElSayed

CAIRO, Apr. 5 (SEE) – NATO Foreign Ministers celebrated 70 years of the transatlantic Alliance during a gathering in Washington D.C.’s Mellon Auditorium.

The ceremony, which was held on April 3rd and hosted by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, took place in the same room where the Foreign Ministers of the 12 founding Allies met to sign the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949.

Media reports quoted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hailing the treaty, saying: “its reach is vast, and it has stood the test of time – because we have united around our core commitment to protect and defend one another”.

NATO constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.

NATO's Headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.

Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 29. The most recent member state to be added to NATO is Montenegro on 5 June 2017.

NATO currently recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia and Ukraine as aspiring members.

An additional 21 countries participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global total, while members have committed to reach or maintain defense spending of at least 2% of GDP by 2024.