The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organization implemented the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. NATO is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the perceived threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. The organization's motto is animus in consulendo liber.
The North Atlantic Treaty, also referred to as the Washington Treaty, is the treaty that forms the legal basis of, and is implemented by, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949.
Jens Stoltenberg is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to 2001, and again from 2005 until 2013.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen is a Danish politician who was the 24th Prime Minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the 12th Secretary General of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became CEO of political consultancy Rasmussen Global and founded the Alliance of Democracies Foundation. He serves as a Senior Adviser to Citigroup. He also served as a senior advisor at The Boston Consulting Group.
The NATO Response Force (NRF) is a high-readiness force comprising land, air, sea and special forces units capable of being deployed quickly. Until February 2022, when NATO activated it in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, units assigned to the NRF had only been used to assist with disaster relief and security at high-profile security events. On 25 February 2022 after a NATO meeting, the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) was activated for the defense of members of the alliance, for the first time.
The 2006 Riga summit or the 19th NATO Summit was a NATO summit held in the Olympic Sports Centre, Riga, Latvia from 28 to 29 November 2006. The most important topics discussed were the War in Afghanistan and the future role and borders of the alliance. Further, the summit focused on the alliance's continued transformation, taking stock of what has been accomplished since the 2002 Prague Summit. NATO also committed itself to extending further membership invitations in the upcoming 2008 Bucharest Summit. This summit was the first NATO summit held on the territory of the formerly Soviet-occupied Baltic states.
The 2008 Bucharest Summit or the 20th NATO Summit was a NATO summit organized in the Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest, Romania on 2 – 4 April 2008.
Relations between Ukraine and the United Kingdom have existed in one form or another since Ukrainian independence in 1991. The two countries have ties across political, military, social and economic spheres. The UK hosts up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees giving it the 8th largest Ukrainian migrant population in Europe.
Relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) started in 1991. Ukraine applied to integrate with a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 2008. Plans for NATO membership were shelved by Ukraine following the 2010 presidential election in which Viktor Yanukovych, who preferred to keep the country non-aligned, was elected President. Amid the unrest caused by the Euromaidan protests, Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014. The interim Yatseniuk Government which came to power initially said, with reference to the country's non-aligned status, that it had no plans to join NATO. However, following the Russian military invasion in Ukraine and parliamentary elections in October 2014, the new government made joining NATO a priority. On 21 February 2019, the Constitution of Ukraine was amended, the norms on the strategic course of Ukraine for membership in the European Union and NATO are enshrined in the preamble of the Basic Law, three articles and transitional provisions.
Relations between the NATO military alliance and the Russian Federation were established in 1991 within the framework of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. In 1994, Russia joined the Partnership for Peace program, and on 27 May 1997, the NATO–Russia Founding Act (NRFA) was signed at a NATO Summit in Paris, France, enabling the creation of the NATO–Russia Permanent Joint Council (NRPJC). Through the early part of 2010s NATO and Russia signed several additional agreements on cooperation. The NRPJC was replaced in 2002 by the NATO–Russia Council (NRC) established for handling security issues and joint projects.
The 2016 Warsaw Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the 27th formal meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, held at the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland, on 8 and 9 July 2016.
The 2018 Brussels Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the 29th formal meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, held in Brussels, Belgium, on 11 and 12 July 2018.
Operation Reassurance (OpRe) is an initiative of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) which dates from 2014, when NATO partners "agreed upon and began to enact a series of military measures on 16 April 2014", in response to the February 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. The initial financial commitment was agreed to at a meeting of the Harper Cabinet the next day. As of 25 March 2022 it funds the deployment of approximately 1,375 CAF members.
The 2021 Brussels summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the 31st formal meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, held in Brussels, Belgium, on 14 June 2021.
The Bucharest Nine or the Bucharest Format is an organization founded on 4 November 2015 in Bucharest, Romania, at the initiative of the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis and the President of Poland Andrzej Duda during a bilateral meeting between them. Its members are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Its appearance was mainly a result of a perceived aggressive attitude from Russia following the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its posterior intervention in eastern Ukraine both in 2014. All members of the B9 were either part of the former Soviet Union (USSR) or members of the defunct Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.
Many states, international organizations, and civil society actors worldwide had expressed their reactions to the then-escalating crisis between Russia and Ukraine that started in March 2021. The crisis eventually culminated in a Russian invasion of Ukraine, beginning on 24 February 2022.
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine received widespread international condemnation, leading to new sanctions being imposed on Russia, consequently triggering a Russian financial crisis. Reactions among governments worldwide have generally been negative, with criticism and condemnation made by many leading nations such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain. International organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have also voiced significant criticism of the invasion over not having justifiable precedent. From the early phases of the invasion, the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
The 2022 Brussels summit was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of NATO held in Brussels, Belgium, on 24 March 2022. The meeting took place in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The 2022 Madrid summit was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of NATO member and partner countries held in Madrid, Spain, on 28–30 June 2022. Spain previously hosted a NATO Summit in 1997.
In the context of the enlargement of NATO, Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty is the origin for the April 1999 statement of a "NATO open door policy".
Albania – Prime Minister Edi Rama 
Belgium – Prime Minister Alexander De Croo 
Bulgaria – President Rumen Radev 
Canada – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 
Croatia – President Zoran Milanović 
Czech Republic – Prime Minister Petr Fiala 
Denmark – Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen 
Estonia – Prime Minister Kaja Kallas 
France – President Emmanuel Macron 
Germany – Chancellor Olaf Scholz 
Greece – Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis 
Hungary – Prime Minister Viktor Orbán 
Iceland – Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir 
Italy – Prime Minister Mario Draghi 
Latvia – President Egils Levits 
Lithuania – President Gitanas Nausėda 
Luxembourg – Prime Minister Xavier Bettel 
Montenegro – President Milo Đukanović 
Netherlands – Prime Minister Mark Rutte 
North Macedonia – Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski 
Norway – Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre 
Poland – President Andrzej Duda 
Portugal – Prime Minister António Costa 
Romania – President Klaus Iohannis 
Slovakia – President Zuzana Čaputová 
Slovenia – Prime Minister Janez Janša 
Spain – Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez 
Turkey – President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 
United Kingdom – Prime Minister Boris Johnson 
United States – President Joe Biden 
NATO – Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg 
