North Atlantic Treaty (1949)

The North Atlantic Treaty is an international agreement concluded on April 4, 1949 in Washington by Western European and North American countries with the aim of joining forces for collective defense, maintaining peace and security in the North Atlantic region. The treaty served as the founding document for the creation of NATO .

North Atlantic Treaty
Original contract page
date of signing	April 4, 1949
• a place	Washington , USA
Parties	, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and
Languages	English French
Site	Of. text

Initial participants - USA , UK , France , Belgium , Denmark , Iceland , Italy , Canada , Luxembourg , Norway , Netherlands , Portugal . In accordance with Art. 10 treaties were subsequently joined: in 1952 - Greece and Turkey , in 1955 - Germany (in 1990 the treaty extended to the territory of the former GDR ), in 1982 - Spain , in 1999 - Hungary , Poland , Czech Republic , in 2004 - Bulgaria , Latvia , Lithuania , Romania , Slovakia , Slovenia , Estonia , in 2009 - Albania , Croatia , in 2017 - Montenegro ^[2] . A number of Eastern European countries also announced their intention to join the treaty.

Art. Section 5 of the agreement provides for the creation of a collective defense system: the parties to the agreement agree that an armed attack on one or several participating countries will be considered an attack on all of them, and if this happens, each country will, in order to exercise the right to individual or collective defense, help the victim of aggression, including the use of armed force.

The geographical area of ​​the contract - the North Atlantic region - is described in Art. 5 and includes the territories of the participating countries, islands that are under their jurisdiction in the Atlantic Ocean north of the tropic of Cancer , ships and aircraft of any of the participating countries in the area.

The North Atlantic Treaty is concluded for an indefinite period. The terms indicated in the text of the contract relate to the time of the possible start of consultations “with the aim of revising the contract” and the period after which “any contracting party may refuse to participate in the contract”.

The contract may be revised after mutual consultation of the parties at the request of any of them. According to Art. 12 of the treaty, these consultations can be held “after a 10-year period from the date of entry into force of the treaty or at any subsequent time”, taking into account “the factors affecting peace and security in the North Atlantic region at that time, including the development of universal and regional agreements concluded in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations to maintain international peace and security. ”

As for the refusal to participate in the contract, then, in accordance with Art. 13, “upon the expiration of a 20-year period from the date of entry into force of the contract, any contracting party may refuse to participate in the contract one year after the denunciation statement sent to the Government of the United States of America, which will inform the governments of the other contracting parties about the deposit of each denunciation statement” . To date, not a single country has used this opportunity, limiting itself to leaving the military organization ( France ) or not joining it ( Spain and Iceland ).