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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an international military alliance consisting of 32 member states from Europe and North America. It was established at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. Of the 32 member countries, 30 are in Europe and two are in North America. Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbours were set up, including the Partnership for Peace, the Mediterranean Dialogue initiative, and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.

All members have militaries, except for Iceland, which does not have a typical army (but it does have a coast guard and a small unit of civilian specialists for NATO operations). Three of NATO's members are nuclear weapons states: France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NATO has 12 original founding member states. Three more members joined between 1952 and 1955, and a fourth joined in 1982. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has added 16 more members from 1999 to 2024. Article 5 of the treaty states that if an armed attack occurs against one of the member states, it shall be considered an attack against all members, and other members shall assist the attacked member, with armed forces if necessary. Article 6 of the treaty limits the scope of Article 5 to the islands north of the Tropic of Cancer, the North American and European mainlands, the entirety of Turkey, and French Algeria, the last of which has been moot since July 1962. Thus, an attack on Hawaii, Puerto Rico, French Guiana, the Falkland Islands, Ceuta or Melilla, among other places, would not trigger an Article 5 response.

NATO currently recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine as aspiring members as part of their Open Doors enlargement policy.

Founding members and enlargement

NATO was established on 4 April 1949 via the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty (Washington Treaty). The 12 founding members of the Alliance were: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The various allies all signed the Ottawa Agreement, which is a 1951 document that acts to embody civilian oversight of the Alliance.

Current membership consists of 32 countries. In addition to the 12 founding countries, four new members joined during the Cold War: Greece and Turkey (1952), West Germany (1955) and Spain (1982). Additionally, NATO experienced territorial expansion during this period without adding new member states when Zone A of the Free Territory of Trieste was annexed by Italy in 1954, and the territory of the former East Germany was added with the reunification of Germany in 1990. 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); Finland (2023); and Sweden (2024). Of the territories and members added between 1990 and 2024, all except for Finland and Sweden were either formerly part of the Warsaw Pact (including the formerly Soviet Baltic states) or territories of the former Yugoslavia. No countries have left NATO since its founding.

Currently, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization now covers a total area of 27,580,492 km (10,648,887 sq mi), since the accession of Sweden on 7 March 2024.

List of member states

The current members and their dates of admission are listed below.

Flag	Map	Name	Capital	Accession	Population	Area	Military budget as %GDP 2024	GDP 2023 (million US$)	Languages
		Albania	Tirana	1 April 2009	002,854,710	28,748 km (11,100 sq mi)	2.03	22,743	Albanian
		Belgium	Brussels	24 August 1949	011,611,419	30,528 km (11,787 sq mi)	1.30	630,110	Dutch French German
		Bulgaria	Sofia	29 March 2004	006,885,868	110,879 km (42,811 sq mi)	2.18	101,611	Bulgarian
		Canada	Ottawa	24 August 1949	038,155,012	9,984,670 km (3,855,103 sq mi)	1.37	2,140,086	English French
		Croatia	Zagreb	1 April 2009	004,060,135	56,594 km (21,851 sq mi)	1.81	82,044	Croatian
		Czech Republic	Prague	12 March 1999	010,510,751	78,867 km (30,451 sq mi)	2.10	332,025	Czech
		Denmark	Copenhagen	24 August 1949	005,854,240	2,210,573 km (853,507 sq mi)	2.37	405,199	Danish
		Estonia	Tallinn	29 March 2004	001,328,701	45,228 km (17,463 sq mi)	3.43	40,757	Estonian
		Finland	Helsinki	4 April 2023	005,619,399	338,455 km (130,678 sq mi)	2.41	300,499	Finnish Swedish
		France	Paris	24 August 1949	064,531,444	643,427 km (248,429 sq mi)	2.06	3,031,778	French
		Germany	Berlin	6 May 1955 (West Germany) 3 October 1990 (Germany)	083,408,554	357,022 km (137,847 sq mi)	2.12	4,457,366	German
		Greece	Athens	18 February 1952	010,445,365	131,957 km (50,949 sq mi)	3.08	238,275	Greek
		Hungary	Budapest	12 March 1999	009,709,786	93,028 km (35,918 sq mi)	2.11	212,610	Hungarian
		Iceland	Reykjavík	24 August 1949	000,370,335	103,000 km (39,769 sq mi)	0.0	31,020	Icelandic
		Italy	Rome		059,240,329	301,340 km (116,348 sq mi)	1.49	2,255,503	Italian
		Latvia	Riga	29 March 2004	001,873,919	64,589 km (24,938 sq mi)	3.15	43,598	Latvian
		Lithuania	Vilnius		002,786,651	65,300 km (25,212 sq mi)	2.85	77,926	Lithuanian
		Luxembourg	Luxembourg	24 August 1949	000,639,321	2,586 km (998 sq mi)	1.29	85,780	Luxembourgish French German
		Montenegro	Podgorica	5 June 2017	000,627,859	13,812 km (5,333 sq mi)	2.02	7,406	Montenegrin
		Netherlands	Amsterdam	24 August 1949	017,501,696	41,543 km (16,040 sq mi)	2.05	1,117,101	Dutch
		North Macedonia	Skopje	27 March 2020	002,103,330	25,713 km (9,928 sq mi)	2.22	14,769	Macedonian
		Norway	Oslo	24 August 1949	005,403,021	323,802 km (125,021 sq mi)	2.20	485,513	Norwegian
		Poland	Warsaw	12 March 1999	038,307,726	312,685 km (120,728 sq mi)	4.12	808,435	Polish
		Portugal	Lisbon	24 August 1949	010,290,103	92,090 km (35,556 sq mi)	1.55	287,421	Portuguese
		Romania	Bucharest	29 March 2004	019,328,560	238,391 km (92,043 sq mi)	2.25	345,894	Romanian
		Slovakia	Bratislava		005,447,622	49,035 km (18,933 sq mi)	2.0	132,122	Slovak
		Slovenia	Ljubljana		002,119,410	20,273 km (7,827 sq mi)	1.29	68,236	Slovene
		Spain	Madrid	30 May 1982	047,486,935	505,370 km (195,124 sq mi)	1.28	1,581,151	Spanish
		Sweden	Stockholm	7 March 2024	010,467,097	450,295 km (173,860 sq mi)	2.14	593,268	Swedish
		Turkey	Ankara	18 February 1952	084,775,404	783,562 km (302,535 sq mi)	2.09	1,108,453	Turkish
		United Kingdom	London	24 August 1949	067,281,039	243,610 km (94,058 sq mi)	2.33	3,344,744	English
		United States	Washington, D.C.		336,997,624	9,833,520 km (3,796,743 sq mi)	3.38	27,357,825

Special arrangements

The three Nordic countries which joined NATO as founding members, Denmark, Iceland and Norway, chose to limit their participation in three areas: there would be no permanent peacetime bases, no nuclear warheads and no Allied military activity (unless invited) permitted on their territory. However, Denmark allowed the U.S. to maintain an existing base, Thule Air Base (now Pituffik Space Base), in Greenland.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, France pursued a military strategy of independence from NATO under a policy dubbed "Gaullo-Mitterrandism". Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated the return of France to the integrated military command and the Defence Planning Committee in 2009, the latter being disbanded the following year. France remains the only NATO member outside the Nuclear Planning Group and unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, will not commit its nuclear-armed submarines to the alliance.

Membership aspirations

As of March 2024, three additional states have formally informed NATO of their membership aspirations: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine.

• NATO members agreed at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Georgia and Ukraine "will become members of NATO in the future".
• Bosnia and Herzegovina was invited by NATO to join the Membership Action Plan (MAP) in April 2010.

Withdrawal

No state has ever withdrawn from NATO, but some dependencies of member states have not requested membership after becoming independent:

•  Cyprus (independence from the United Kingdom in 1960)
•  Algeria (independence from France in 1962)
•  Malta (independence from the United Kingdom in 1964)

Military personnel

This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Table uses 2022 version instead of 2024. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2024)

The following list is constructed from The Military Balance, published annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Numbers of military personnel

Country		Active	Reserve	Para­mili­tary	Total	Per 1,000 capita
						total	active
	Albania	10,500	0	500	11,000	3.6	3.4
	Belgium	29,400	5,900	0	35,300	3	2.5
	Bulgaria	42,663	3,000	0	45,663	6.6	6.2
	Canada	70,500	35,600	5,500	111,600	2.9	1.9
	Croatia	16,700	21,000	3,000	40,700	9.7	4
	Czech Republic	27,400	4,200	0	31,600	3	2.6
	Denmark	20,440	45,800	0	66,240	11.2	3.5
	Estonia	7,600	230,000	15,800	253,400	207.7	6.2
	Finland	24,250	900,000	14,321	938,571	168.7	4.4
	France	208,750	141,050	175,050	524,850	7.7	3.1
	Germany	184,100	50,050	0	234,150	2.9	2.3
	Greece	143,300	221,350	4,000	368,650	34.8	13.5
	Hungary	41,600	20,000	12,000	73,600	7.6	4.3
	Iceland	250	250	250	750	2.1	0.7
	Italy	175,100	18,300	182,350	375,750	6	2.8
	Latvia	16,700	36,000	0	52,700	28.3	9
	Lithuania	23,000	90,000	14,150	127,150	46.9	8.5
	Luxembourg	940	0	600	1,540	2.4	1.5
	Montenegro	2,350	2,800	10,100	15,250	25.1	3.9
	Netherlands	41,543	6,643	6,500	54,686	3.2	2.4
	North Macedonia	8,000	26,850	7,600	42,450	19.9	3.8
	Norway	25,400	40,000	0	65,400	11.9	4.6
	Poland	164,500	200,000	75,400	439,900	11.5	4.3
	Portugal	33,200	211,700	24,700	269,600	26.3	3.2
	Romania	72,000	55,000	79,900	206,900	9.7	3.4
	Slovakia	19,500	0	0	19,500	3.6	3.6
	Slovenia	7,500	26,200	5,950	39,650	18.9	3.6
	Spain	133,282	15,450	75,800	224,532	4.8	2.8
	Sweden	24,400	32,900	0	57,300	5.4	2.3
	Turkey	690,811	380,700	192,534	1,264,045	15.3	8.4
	United Kingdom	196,453	78,600	0	275,053	4.2	3
	United States	1,598,287	1,072,543	0	2,670,830	8	4.8
	NATO	3,869,402	3,768,103	870,271	8,507,776	8.7	4

Military expenditures

Military spending of the US compared to 31 other NATO member countries (US$ millions).

Total military spending of NATO member countries except the United States, and Sweden (US$ millions).

United States and Sweden omitted – see above

The defence spending of the United States is more than double the defence spending of all other NATO members combined. Criticism of the fact that many member states were not contributing their fair share in accordance with the international agreement by then US president Donald Trump caused various reactions from American and European political figures, ranging from ridicule to panic. While NATO members have committed to spending at least 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence, most of them did not meet that goal in 2023.

Member state	Popu­lation	GDP (nomi­nal) ($billions)	Defence expenditure (US$)			Person­nel
			Total ($mil­lions)	% real GDP	Per capita
Albania	3,101,621	25.43	516	2.03	114	7,000
Belgium	11,913,633	655.74	8,519	1.30	585	21,300
Bulgaria	6,827,736	106.72	2,325	2.18	218	26,900
Canada	38,516,736	2,233.83	30,495	1.37	609	77,100
Croatia	4,169,239	89.90	1,624	1.81	315	13,700
Czechia	10,706,242	326.13	6,834	2.10	426	29,500
Denmark	6,057,361	418.58	9,940	2.37	1,479	17,300
Estonia	1,202,762	41.89	1,437	3.43	690	7,500
Finland	5,614,571	302.72	7,308	2.41	1,103	30,800
France	62,819,428	3,120.35	64,271	2.06	801	204,700
Germany	84,220,184	4,610.04	97,686	2.12	911	185,600
Greece	10,497,595	249.81	7,684	3.08	648	110,800
Hungary	9,670,009	231.61	4,889	2.11	349	20,900
Iceland	360,872	32.89	—	—	—	—
Italy	61,021,855	2,311.17	34,462	1.49	505	171,400
Latvia	1,821,750	45.15	1,421	3.15	539	8,400
Lithuania	2,655,755	80.72	2,300	2.85	538	18,500
Luxembourg	660,924	60.69	785	1.29	921	900
Montenegro	602,445	8.02	162	2.02	170	1,600
Netherlands	17,463,930	1,162.88	21,640	1.85	1,030	41,900
North Macedonia	2,133,410	15.87	353	2.22	127	6,100
Norway	5,600,850	482.58	10,606	2.20	1,754	24,300
Poland	37,991,766	848.86	34,975	4.12	711	216,100
Portugal	10,223,150	298.98	4,627	1.55	360	28,400
Romania	18,326,327	383.92	8,644	2.25	289	66,600
Slovakia	5,425,319	142.81	2,841	1.99	387	15,600
Slovenia	2,099,790	73.52	949	1.29	339	5,900
Spain	47,051,085	1,658.36	21,269	1.28	366	117,400
Sweden	10,536,338	626.54	13,428	2.14	1,185	23,100
Turkey	83,593,483	1,090.29	22,776	2.09	310	481,000
United Kingdom	68,502,956	3,520.50	82,107	2.33	1,077	138,100
United States	338,229,980	28,719.94	967,707	3.37	2,239	1,300,200
NATO	969,619,192	53,976.44	1,474,399	2.73	1,210	3,418,600

Political and popular support

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (April 2022)

Pew Research Center's 2016 survey among its member states showed that while most countries viewed NATO positively, most NATO members preferred keeping their military spending the same. The response to whether their country should militarily aid another NATO country if it were to get into a serious military conflict with Russia was also mixed. Roughly half or fewer in six of the eight countries surveyed say their country should use military force if Russia attacks a neighboring country that is a NATO ally. And at least half in three of the eight NATO countries say that their government should not use military force in such circumstances. The strongest opposition to responding with armed force is in Germany (58%), followed by France (53%) and Italy (51%). More than half of Americans (56%) and Canadians (53%) are willing to respond to Russian military aggression against a fellow NATO country. A plurality of the British (49%) and Poles (48%) would also live up to their Article 5 commitment. The Spanish are divided on the issue: 48% support it, 47% oppose.

Notes

1. ^ Founding member of NATO.
2. Officially referred to by the name Czechia. (See Czech Republic#Name.)
3. Denmark consists of Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
4. including Faroe Islands and Greenland.
5. Excluding all overseas territories of France apart from Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
6. Germany initially joined NATO as West Germany. The former country of East Germany became part of NATO after German reunification.
7. Zone A of the Free Territory of Trieste was annexed by Italy on 5 October 1954.
8. Only the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is part of NATO.
9. Figure includes the islands of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius, but they don't fall under the NATO treaty.
10. Excluding Bouvet Island.
11. Including Jan Mayen, and Svalbard.
12. Excluding the Plazas de soberanía region.
13. Officially referred to by the name Türkiye. (See Name of Turkey.)
14. Including Gibraltar and Bermuda. The crown dependencies and other overseas territories are excluded.
15. Only includes land north of the Tropic of Cancer, effectively excluding Hawaii and all territories.
16. The paramilitary forces of Italy consist of the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza.
17. ^ Country order is the same as the preceding chart (military personnel per 1,000 capita) to maintain the same country colours between charts.
18. The pie chart format does not allow as many slices as there are countries in NATO, so certain countries (Albania, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland and Luxembourg) have been combined into a single slice.
19. Population data is based on a 2023 estimate by the Central Intelligence Agency in The World Factbook.
20. ^ Defence expenditure, GDP and personnel data are based on a June 2024 press release from NATO.

References

Citations

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4. ^ NATO. "Member countries". NATO. Archived from the original on 19 November 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
5. ^ Mosquera, Andrés B. Muñoz (2019). "The North Atlantic Treaty: Article 9 and NATO's Institutionalization". Volume 34. Emory International Law Review. Archived from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2022. Really, the Agreement on the Status of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, National Representatives and International Staff signed in Ottawa
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12. "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2024". IMF.org. International Monetary Fund. 16 April 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
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17. ^ NATO. "Enlargement and Article 10". NATO. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
18. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (February 2022). The Military Balance 2022. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-032-27900-8. ISSN 0459-7222.
19. Friedman, George (24 January 2017). "Where Does The Relationship Between NATO And The U.S. Go From Here?". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 29 January 2024. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
20. Birnbaum, Michael; Gibbons-Neff, Thomas (8 April 2023). "NATO allies boost defense spending in the wake of Trump criticism". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
21. Mortimer, Caroline (19 March 2017). "Ex-US ambassador in withering criticism of Trump on Nato". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
22. Ridgwell, Henry (25 January 2017). "Shaken by Trump's Criticism of NATO, Europe Mulls Building Own Military Force". Voice Of America. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
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28. Emmott, Robin (23 May 2017). "U.S. would defend NATO despite Trump's criticism, Europeans believe: study". Reuters. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 28 January 2024.

Bibliography

• International Institute for Strategic Studies (14 February 2018). The Military Balance 2018. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781857439557.

• Member states of NATO
• NATO
• Countries by international organization
• Events affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine