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.[4]
The various allies all sign the Ottawa Agreement,[5] which is a 1951 document that acts to embody civilian oversight of the Alliance.[5][6]
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). In 1990, the territory of the former East Germany was added with the reunification of Germany. 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).[4] 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 km2 (10,648,887 sq mi), since the accession of Sweden on 7 March 2024.
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