Macedonia set to become NATO's 30th member

Macedonia has taken a big step towards joining Nato after allies signed a key document that could see the tiny Balkans country become the 30th member of the world's biggest military alliance.

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov led the 'accession protocol' signing ceremony on Wednesday Feb 06,2019 at the alliance's Brussels headquarters.

Greece had previously blocked Macedonia's Nato membership for a decade over a name dispute, but Macedonia has agreed to change its tittle to 'North Macedonia' to gain access to Nato and the EU.



Note

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization – or NATO, as it is called – is an intergovernmental military alliance between countries in North America and Europe.

The organization oversees the implementation of the North Atlantic Treaty that was originally signed in 1949.

Members of NATO have agreed to a system of collective defense for its members. This simply means that member states will step in and offer mutual defense when one of the member states is attacked by an outside party.

When the organization first began, there were 12 original countries.

This number has since grown to 29 as of July 2018. These countries (in alphabetical order) are

1. Albania(2009)
2. Belgium(1949)
3.  Bulgaria(2004) 
4. Canada(1949)
5. Croatia(2009)
6. Czech Republic(1999)
7.  Denmark(1949)
8.  Estonia(2004)
9.  France(1949)
10. Germany(1955)
11. Greece(1952)
12. Hungary(1999) 
13. Iceland(1949)
14. Italy(1949)
15.  Latvia(2004)
16. Lithuania(2004)
17. Luxembourg(1949) 
18. Montenegro(2016)
19.  Netherlands(1949)
20. Norway(1949)
21. Poland(1999)
22. Portugal(1949)
23. Romania(2004) 
24. Slovakia(2004)
25. Slovenia(2004)
26. Spain(1982)
27. Turkey(1952)
28. United Kingdom(1949)
29.  United States(1949)