• Netherlands hosted this year’s NATO Summit on June 24 & 25 in The Hague. 

• It brought together heads of state and government from across the alliance.

• At present, NATO has 32 member countries.

• These countries, called NATO Allies, are sovereign states that come together through NATO to discuss political and security issues and make collective decisions by consensus.

• NATO also hosted a Summit Defence Industry Forum that brought together political and military leaders, as well as industry, to advance efforts to boost defence industrial production across the alliance. 

What is NATO?

• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was formed in 1949 with the signing of the Washington Treaty. 

• NATO is a security alliance of 32 countries from North America and Europe. 

• In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

• The other member countries are: Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), 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).

• NATO brings together sovereign countries from Europe and North America, consulting and cooperating in the field of security and defence.

• NATO’s fundamental goal is to safeguard the Allies’ freedom and security by political and military means.

• NATO enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.

• NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO’s founding treaty — Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations.

Highlights of this year’s Summit:

• At the formal session of NATO heads of state and government, Allied leaders adopted a summit declaration that set a new benchmark for defence investment, underlined the importance of ramping up defence industrial production, and affirmed continued support for Ukraine. 

• With The Hague Defence Investment Plan outlined in the statement, Allies made a commitment to invest 5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually on core defence requirements and defence and security-related spending by 2035.

• This marks a major uplift from the previous benchmark of 2 per cent of GDP.

• They will allocate at least 3.5 per cent of GDP annually based on the agreed definition of NATO defence expenditure by 2035 to resource core defence requirements and to meet the NATO Capability Targets. 

• Allies agreed to submit annual plans showing a credible, incremental path to reach this goal. 

• They will account for up to 1.5 per cent of GDP annually to protect critical infrastructure, defend networks, ensure civil preparedness and resilience, innovate, and strengthen the defence industrial base.

• The next NATO Summit is planned for 2026 in Turkey.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store