NATO is marking its 75th anniversary
NATO will celebrate on Thursday 75 years of collective defense across Europe and North America as Russia’s war on Ukraine enters its third year and sorely tests the allies’ resolve while rising populism gnaws at their unity.
At a cake-cutting ceremony in Brussels, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his counterparts will mark the moment the alliance’s founding treaty was signed on April 4, 1949, in Washington. A bigger celebration is planned when NATO leaders meet in Washington from July 9 to 11.
Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström, is taking part in the first ministerial-level meeting since his country became NATO’s 32nd ally last month. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 drove Sweden and its Nordic neighbor Finland into NATO’s arms.
The alliance’s ranks have almost tripled over more than seven decades from its 12 founding members, but Finland and Sweden joined in record time to shelter under NATO’s collective security guarantee, after coming under pressure for compensation from populist leaders in Turkey and Hungary.
That promise — Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, which has been shipped to Brussels for the ceremony — stipulates that an attack on any one of their number must be met with a united response. It’s only ever been used once, after the Al-Qaeda attacks on U.S. soil in 2001.
“NATO was founded on a single, solemn promise: An attack on one ally is an attack on all,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on the eve of the anniversary.
