29 countries gathered in London for the 70th anniversary of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Its HQ is in Brussels. It was established after World War 2 with the will to balance out the influence of the Soviet Union. In 1991 after the Soviet Union collapsed NATO’s task ranged from being a bulwark against Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan to dealing with human trafficking and intercepting refugees in the Mediterranean. There are the U.S., Canada, and 27 European countries in NATO. Allies don’t always see eye to eye. Donald Trump called NATO obsolete as a presidential candidate, claiming other countries didn’t contribute enough money to this alliance. But recently, he took it back and said, NATO served a great purpose and got stronger. On the other hand, French President, Emmanuel Macron, said NATO was in brain death, lacking coordination between the U.S. and Europe. But some other countries including Canada disagreed. Germany said it wasn’t necessary judgment, even though NATO had to pull together. They’re going to deal with it over the summit in London for 2 days.
NATO is still an active political and military alliance led by the Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg. NATO’s core is Article 5; an attack on one member is an attack on all NATO allies. 4,000 U.S. troops are in Poland and Baltic States and thousands are on 24-hour standby, bolstering NATO’s allies and sending a clear message to Russia.*Vocabularies; treaty, alliance, balance out, Soviet Union, see eye to eye, obsolete, brain death, pull together, summit, will, secretary general, HQ, Brussels, article, range, bulwark, trafficking, Baltic states, bolster
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