How does a country join NATO?: requirements and how long the process takes; We explain it to you in 7 keys

the summit of the NATO The two-day campaign in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, ended on Wednesday without the announcement of a clear roadmap for the entry of Ukraine in the Alliance. This new postponement extends the waiting time since the first time Kiev expressed its intention to go for membership in 2008, and which was strongly renewed after the Russian invasion of its territory in February 2022.

Allies have agreed that a formal invitation to Ukraine and its subsequent entry must be decided when the war ends with Russia. Doing so before would mean getting directly involved in the conflict, since it would activate the doctrine that states that an attack against one or several of its members is considered an attack against all.

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In Vilnius, the general secretary of the NATOJens Stoltenberg, said on Wednesday that, when the war is over, the path of Ukraine towards accession to the Alliance will be part of the security guarantees for kyiv.

Here is everything you need to know about the NATO and about how the adhesion process is in 7 keys:

NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. (Ludovic MARIN / AFP). (LUDOVIC MARIN /)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a alliance of countries of Europe and North America. According to the same institution, it constitutes a unique link between these two continents, which allows them to consult and cooperate in the field of defending and the security and conduct multinational crisis management operations together.

It was founded on April 4, 1949, with the signature of the North Atlantic Treaty (either Washington Treaty), where 12 countries pledged to protect each other by political and military means.

the 12 countries founders of NATO are United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Iceland, Portugal and Luxembourg.

currently the NATO It is made up of 31 countries. Finland He was the last to join.

It is based in Brusselsthe capital of Belgium.

NATO countries. (AFP).

The NATO It is only open for European countries. Article 10 of the founding Treaty says that “The parties may, by unanimous agreement, invite to join any European State that is in a position to promote the development of the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area.”

Once a country applies for membership, members of the NATO they must formally invite you to join the organization. This invitation must be endorsed by the 31 members of the alliance.

As Rtve from Spain explains, after the invitation begins a period of accession negotiations in Brussels. In these meetings, it is assessed whether the candidate country meets the conditions to join the allianceand set a reform calendar to meet the conditions if necessary.

The applicant State must convince the representatives of the member countries and the experts of the alliance its ability to comply with the “political, legal and military obligations and commitments” detailed in the Washington Treaty and in the 1995 text on the extension of the NATO.

This entire first phase is called the process of “intensified dialogue”.

Then comes the Membership Action Plan (MAP), through which the NATO it offers assistance to the candidate country to carry out the reforms that it must do and that were agreed in the first stage.

Once both phases have been completed, the NATO prepare a accession protocol concrete for the candidate country. This protocol must be ratified by the Member States in their respective parliaments. Each country can demand specific demands from the candidate nation, Rtve points out.

Once the candidate country has made the legislative changes required for accession, the process ends definitively. Documents for admission to the NATO They must be sent to the US Department of State.

NATO has said that Ukraine could join the Alliance after the war with Russia is over. (Odd ANDERSEN / AFP). (ODD ANDERSEN/)

Once the NATO write a Protocol of Accession to the Washington Treatythe 31 allies must sign and ratify the text, each according to their internal procedures, and notify the United States Government.

Entry is completed when the candidate countries also conclude their ratification of the agreement with their own procedures. Most States make such ratification by means of a vote in their parliaments.

There are no fixed deadlines. This will depend on each case. A country can even wait up to 20 years. For example, Poland and Hungary It took them two years to get into the NATO since they were invited. Albanian and Croatia they were in the MAP for seven years. Montenegro for eight years. While North Macedonia entered into negotiations in 1999 and completed its accession in 2020.

No. But each country must have strong armed forces, endowed with sufficient economic resources for their constant modernization.

Since 2014, the allies have committed to raising defense spending to 2% of their GDP, but not all countries are achieving that goal.

Defense spending of NATO countries. (AFP).

The key principle of NATO is that of collective defense: “An armed attack against one or several of them in Europe or North America will be considered an attack against all of them.”

This principle of collective defense is enshrined in the Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treatywhich guarantees that the resources of the entire alliance can be used to protect any member nation.

As CNN recalls, the first and only time the Article 5 It was after the attacks of September 11, 2001 against the United States. Thus, the NATO allies joined the invasion of Afghanistan.

Source: Elcomercio