NATO Is in Good Shape and Set to Grow Further
NATO held its recent summit at a time when Russia continues its war in Ukraine.
Ukraine wants to join NATO as soon as possible.
Sweden’s recent application to join NATO had been held up mostly by Turkey.
Only a few years ago NATO’s members seemed less united.
NATO currently consists of 31 members (29 European & 2 North American)1
It was founded on 4 April 1949 by its 12 founding members with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty, more popularly known as the Washington Treaty.2
Finland is the organisation’s newest member, joining in 2023.3
If there ever was any real prospect that Ukraine’s membership invitation to NATO would be fast-tracked anytime soon it was already clear the weekend before the July 11th-12th NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania that there was not unanimous support for the idea.
U.S. President Joe Biden had already poured cold water over the idea in an interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN saying that he didn’t think Ukraine was ready for NATO. He also said that he didn’t “think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war…if the war is going on, then we're all in a war. You know, we're in a war with Russia if that were the case.”