North Macedonia to Become NATO’s 30th Member

Prelims level : International Relations Mains level : Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
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In News:

  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization said, its 29 members will clear the way for Macedonia to become the alliance’s 30th member following its historic name change.

Explained:

  • The accession process then moves to the capitals of the 29 Allies, where the Protocol will be ratified according to national procedures. Once that process is completed the country will become a full member.
  • An Accord with Greece to change the name of the former Yugoslav republic to Republic of North Macedoniaended one of the world’s longest diplomatic disputes, paving the way for Skopje to join NATO and the European Union.
  • Since 1991, Athens had objected to its neighbor being called Macedonia because Greece has a northern province of the same name. In ancient times it was the cradle of Alexander the Great’s empire, a source of intense pride for Greeks.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization):

  • The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.

Reason For NATO:

  • NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere. After the destruction of the Second World War, the nations of Europe struggled to rebuild their economies and ensure their security.
  • The former required a massive influx of aid to help the war-torn landscapes re-establish industries and produce food, and the latter required assurances against a resurgent Germany or incursions from the Soviet Union.
  • The United States viewed an economically strong, rearmed, and integrated Europe as vital to the prevention of communist expansion across the continent. As a result, Secretary of State George Marshall proposed a program of large-scale economic aid to Europe.
  • The resulting European Recovery Program, or Marshall Plan, not only facilitated European economic integration but promoted the idea of shared interests and cooperation between the United States and Europe.
  • Soviet refusal either to participate in the Marshall Plan or to allow its satellite states in Eastern Europe to accept the economic assistance helped to reinforce the growing division between east and west in Europe.
  • In 1947–1948, a series of events caused the nations of Western Europe to become concerned about their physical and political security and the United States to become more closely involved with European affairs.
  • The ongoing civil war in Greece, along with tensions in Turkey, led President Harry S. Truman to assert that the United States would provide economic and military aid to both countries, as well as to any other nation struggling against an attempt at subjugation.
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