Brussels 04.04.2024 Today Foreign Ministers gathered at NATO Headquarters to mark 75 years since the signing of the Alliance’s founding document – the North Atlantic Treaty. Since 1949 the Alliance has enlarged now counting 32 Allies and one billion people on both sides of the Atlantic. This year’s NATO Day comes just weeks after Sweden joined as the thirty-second member of the Alliance.

The Washington Treaty, also referred to as the North Atlantic Treaty, is the foundation document of NATO. This treaty, which consists of 14 articles, was signed on 4 April 1949 in Washington, DC, the capital of the United States, by 12 European and North American countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and the United States.

Article 5 of the Washington Treaty sets out the primary objective of NATO’s activities – to secure and protect the security and freedom of its member countries by political and, if necessary, military means. The Washington Treaty also sets out a number of other principles and rules essential for cooperation to ensure national security, as well as procedures for consultation. The Treaty is also the foundation document of NATO’s governing body, the North Atlantic Council, and establishes the procedure for new member countries that want to join NATO. A country can only join the Washington Treaty if all the countries that are already members agree to it.

Article V: “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

“Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security” .