North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

NATO

• NATO is a political and military alliance of 32 countries from Europe and North America.
• Founded -  1949, with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty or Washington Treaty
• Headquarters: Brussels (Belgium)

Object – 

• Deterrent to the threat of Soviet expansion in Europe after World War II.
• NATO provides a unique link between the Europe and North America, enabling them to consult and cooperate in the field of defence and security, and conduct multinational crisis-management operations together.

Principle 

• It is founded on the principle of collective defence (Article 5 of the Treaty), meaning that if one NATO Ally is attacked, then all NATO Allies are attacked.

Members of NATO

• Founding members (12): Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Major challenges faced by NATO

Russian aggression: 

• NATO's annexation of many members since the fall of the Soviet Union, despite Russia's verbal assurances not to expand into the eastern region, undermines trust between NATO and Russia, leading to tensions and perceptions of aggression. Get promotion.

Lack Of Funding : 

• In 2006, NATO Defense Ministers agreed to a commitment that 2% of their countries' GDP would be allocated towards defence spending. However, the majority of NATO members do not meet this goal.

US' commitment to Europe's defence: 

• Former US President questioned value of the alliance and whether US should honour the Article 5 commitment.

The rise of China:

• The expansion of China's military posture in the Indo-Pacific region; Economic and technological footprints that threaten Europe's own industrial and technological base pose challenges to NATO.

India and NATO

Should India join NATO?

• India's membership in NATO can have both positive and negative implications.

Positive for India 

Deterrence Removal

• NATO membership will create deterrence in the path of China and Pakistan to attack India.
• Military-strategic benefits
• India will gain from military-strategic alliance with the world's most powerful organization in the future.

Achievement of cooperation on many issues

• Terrorism
• Emerging nature of military conflict, role of growing military technologies

Negatives for India

Adverse relations with Russia

• India is still heavily dependent on Russian military equipment.

Sovereignty issue

• India has followed the policy of non-alignment since independence, joining NATO may harm India's sovereignty.

Involvement in various conflicts

• According to NATO's Article 5, if any member is attacked then it will be considered an attack on all members and in such a case India will also have to send its troops, due to which India will have to get involved in unnecessary conflicts.