On April 4, 1949, the treaty establishing NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a political-military organization of European and North American countries, was signed in Washington. The treaty was signed by Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Norway, Portugal and the United States of America; then Greece and Turkey were included (February 18, 1952), Germany (May 5, 1955), Spain (May 30, 1982), Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (April 4, 1999); later Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia. NATO was formed to ensure the collective defense of the sovereign countries of Europe and North America, included in it. The political-military structure of NATO considers the member countries’ unlimited sovereignty. Decisions are made on the basis of full consensus of all member countries. An international staff supports the work of the North Atlantic Council and its subordinate committees. Albania was among the first countries to sign the Founding Document of the Partnership for Peace program on February 23, 1994. In April 1994, the Albanian Parliament ratified the Founding Document; in September 1994, presented to NATO the document of Albania’s Presentation in the Partnership for Peace program. With the inclusion of Albania in the Action Plan for NATO Membership, our country has already entered the path of integration into the Euro-Atlantic Alliance. At the NATO Summit in Bucharest on 03.04.2008, Albania received the invitation to NATO, signing the accession protocol in July 2008. (In the photo: Creation of the political-military structure of NATO)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 1810-1811.
Photo: © https://shape.nato.int/page14612223
Graphic processing: AHCF
