NATO further expanded after the Cold War, adding the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017), North Macedonia (2020), and Finland (2023).
NATO has been in talks with several countries who have expressed desire to join and determined in 2008 that both Ukraine and Georgia would join sometime in the future. Both Finland and Sweden asked to join NATO in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. After accession talks with NATO, Finland was approved to join in April.
Its original members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Finland is the newest member; it joined on 4 April 2023, spurred on by Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Australia is one NATO's partners in the Indo-Pacific region, together with Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand. The Indo-Pacific region is important for the Alliance, given that developments in that region can directly affect Euro-Atlantic security.
Since that time, United States has been the most important security ally. The close security relationship with the United States was formalized in 1951 by the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security (ANZUS) Treaty which remains the cornerstone of Australian security arrangements.
A world map reveals that, first, Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere and, second, it lies not in the Atlantic Ocean but, rather, in the Indian and Pacific oceans. NATO is principally for the nations located in the region of the North Atlantic and also nations neighboring or near such nations.
In 1966, due to souring relations between Washington and Paris because of the refusal to integrate France's nuclear deterrent with other North Atlantic powers, or to accept any collective form of control over its armed forces, French president Charles de Gaulle downgraded France's membership in NATO and withdrew France ...
Did you know that France hosted NATO for 15 years? And that although it withdrew from NATO's military structure in 1966, it remained an Ally? What was President de Gaulle's rationale?
The policies of French President Nicolas Sarkozy resulted in a major reform of France's military position, culminating with the return to full membership on 4 April 2009, which also included France rejoining the NATO Military Command Structure but maintaining an independent nuclear deterrent.
Japan is one NATO's partners in the Indo-Pacific region, together with Australia, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand. The Indo-Pacific region is important for the Alliance, given that developments in that region can directly affect Euro-Atlantic security.
To date, Ireland has not sought to join as a full NATO member due to its traditional policy of military neutrality, although there is an ongoing debate on whether they will join in the future after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In 2023, the United States had the largest number of military personnel out of all North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries, with almost 1.35 million troops. The country with the second largest number of military personnel was Türkiye, with around 461,500 personnel.
Plans for NATO membership were shelved by Ukraine following the 2010 presidential election in which Viktor Yanukovych, who preferred to keep the country closer to Russia, was elected President. Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014 during the Revolution of Dignity.
Since the time of the Napoleonic Wars, Sweden has not initiated any direct armed conflict, and the country remained neutral even during World War I and World War II. Sweden chose not to join NATO when it was founded in 1949 and declared a security policy aiming for non-alignment in peace and neutrality in war.
The Kremlin portrays the expansion as evidence of Western hostility to Russia - something Western powers deny, saying the alliance is wholly defensive in nature. Moscow has said it would cause problems for many years to come if Ukraine joined NATO and has warned of an unspecified response to ensure its security.
Russia–NATO relations started to substantially deteriorate following the Ukrainian Orange Revolution in 2004–05 and the Russo-Georgian War in 2008. On 1 April 2014, NATO unanimously decided to suspend all practical co-operation as a response to the Russian annexation of Crimea.
As early as December 1995, France re-entered NATO's Military Committee. France had agreed to intervene outside its original sphere of influence. At the beginning, the Atlantic Alliance, of which France never ceased to be a part, was a defensive alliance, restricted to the Euro-Atlantic zone.
In 2004, France moved one step closer to the NATO military structure by assigning personnel to the permanent staffs of SHAPE and its subordinate headquarters, and in 2009 France officially rejoined NATO's integrated military command structure.
Finland became NATO's newest member today (4 April 2023), upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the United States at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.
The Spanish flag flies alongside those of the other Allies at NATO Headquarters in Brussels shortly after Spain's accession to the Alliance in 1982. Spain joined the Alliance on 30 May 1982 despite considerable public opposition.
Finland has formally become a NATO ally. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg today welcomed the new member when Finland's flag was raised alongside those of the 30 other nations in the alliance during a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Though Australia is not a NATO member, its ties to the organisation have grown as a result of ADF deployments to Afghanistan under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
An enduring alliance with the United States (US) remains Australia's most important defence relationship and continues to act as a crucial force multiplier for Australian Defence Force (ADF) capability.
Traditionally, New Zealand has been a member of the United Nations and has a long history of contributing to a range of United Nations peacekeeping operations. We are also a partner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).