Three Former Soviet Bloc Countries Asked to Join NATO
Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were invited to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in July. According to President Clinton, inclusion of the three former Soviet bloc countries in the Western alliances symbolizes a new era of peace, unity, and democracy in Europe. If the new members are approved, they will probably join the alliance in 1999. Russia strongly objected to eastward expansion of the alliance on the grounds that such expansion represented a threat to its security. But in the end it was unable to prevent the United States from pushing ahead with NATO expansion. |
NATO came into being in 1949, when the 12 original members signed the North Atlantic Treaty, which established a defensive alliance based on political and military cooperation. The purpose of the treaty was to secure and maintain a just and lasting peace in Europe and to formalize the ties, based on common values of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, linking Europe to the United States and Canada. Greece and Turkey were admitted to the Alliance in 1952, Germany in 1955, and Spain in 1982. |
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Present NATO Membership |
Country |
Population |
Active |
Defense Spending 1996, in millions 3,230 32,462 7,733 3,113 38,454 31,945 3,462 - 19,951 121 8,076 3,711 1,728 6,919 5,651 268,843 | |||
1. What is NATO? 2. Why is the expansion of NATO to include former Soviet bloc countries important? | ||||||