75 years of NATO

July 23, 2024

ISLAMABAD – AT the Nato Summit in Washington this month, marking 75 years of the alliance’s existence, the Russia-Ukraine war dominated discussions. The summit declaration condemned Russia for its “brutal war of aggression” against Ukraine, and its “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and coercive nuclear signalling”.

Expressing full solidarity with Ukraine, Nato’s 32 members pledged long-term security assistance for Ukraine, including a new baseline funding of 40 billion euros within the next year. Nato has deployed combat-ready forces on its eastern flank; over 500,000 forces are in high readiness. The declaration also announced that “Ukraine’s future is in Nato” and the alliance would take further steps to support Ukraine’s “irrev­ersible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration”.

The Nato-Russia rivalry goes back to the time of the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union. Nato was born on April 4, 1949, when 12 countries from Western Europe and North America came together in Washington, D.C. to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. Under Article 5 of the treaty, the members committed to defend each other through political and military means and counter the threat posed by the Soviet-led communist world. President Harry S. Truman’s historic address to the US Congress in March 1949 is noted as the start of the Cold War.

Moscow reacted by forming a political and military alliance between the Soviet Union and East European states — the Warsaw Pact of 1955. A bitter rivalry ensued, which ended only with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Nato recalibrated its mandate and began expanding eastwards, much to the discomfort of Russia, the Soviet Union’s successor state. To pacify Russian concerns, a Nato-Russia