Member states of NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an international alliance that consists of 28 member states from North America and Europe. It was established at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. Article Five of the treaty states that if an armed attack occurs against one of the member states, it should be considered an attack against all members, and other members shall assist the attacked member, with armed forces if necessary.^[1]

Of two are North American countries (Canada and the United States) and 26 are European countries. All members have militias, although Iceland does not have a typical army (it does, however, have a militarycoast guard and a small unit of soldiers for NATO operations). Three of NATO's members are nuclear weapons states: France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Country	Enlargement	Notes
4 April 1949	Belgium	Founders
	Canada
	Denmark		Unlike Denmark's EU membership, its NATO membership does include the Faroe Islands andGreenland.
	France		France withdrew from the integrated military command in 1966 to pursue an independent defence system but returned to full membership on April 4, 2009.
	Iceland		Iceland, the sole member that does not have its own standing army, joined on the condition that it would not be expected to establish one. However, its strategic geographic position in the Atlantic made it an invaluable member. It has a Coast Guard and has recently contributed a voluntary peacekeeping force, trained in Norway for NATO.
	Italy
	Luxembourg
	Netherlands
	Norway
	Portugal
	United Kingdom
	United States
18 February 1952	Greece	First	Greece withdrew its forces from NATO’s military command structure from 1974 to 1980 as a result of Greco-Turkish tensions following the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
	Turkey
9 May 1955	Germany	Second	Joined as West Germany; Saarland reunited with it in 1957 and the territories of Berlin and the former German Democratic Republic reunited with it on 3 October 1990. The GDR was a member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1956–1990.
30 May 1982	Spain	Third
12 March 1999	Czech Republic	Fourth	Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 as part of Czechoslovakia.
	Hungary		Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991.
	Poland		Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991.
29 March 2004	Bulgaria	Fifth	Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991.
	Estonia		Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 as part of the Soviet Union.
	Latvia		Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 as part of the Soviet Union.
	Lithuania		Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 as part of the Soviet Union.
	Romania		Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991.
	Slovakia		Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 as part of Czechoslovakia.
	Slovenia		Previously part of Yugoslavia 1945–1991 (Non-aligned)
1 April 2009	Albania	Sixth	Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1968.
	Croatia		Previously part of Yugoslavia 1945–1991 (Non-aligned)

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