Two weeks ago, North Macedonia became the 30th member of NATO, the nuclear-armed military alliance.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said about the announcement “North Macedonia is now part of the NATO family, a family of 30 nations and almost 1 billion people. A family based on the certainty that, no matter what challenges we face, we are all stronger and safer together.”
The truth about NATO
This image of NATO as a ‘family’ of countries seeking common security through co-operation is a false one.
In the 30 years since the Cold War, NATO has massively expanded territorially, changed its mission statement from a defensive to an aggressive posture and embarked on a series of wars, of which their intervention in Afghanistan is getting on for two decades long.
NATO’s activities turned the end of the Cold War from a unique opportunity for peaceful development, arms conversion and the buidling of a truly global community into an era of global tension and increasing militarization. The encircling of Russia and China with NATO and US bases and military facilities has created the conditions for a new Cold War, tearing up international legal norms, notably around national sovereignty, and introducing bogus notions of ‘humanitarian war’.
In addition to North Macedonia’s membership, NATO is also expanding into Latin America, while demanding NATO member states arbitrarily increase military spending (a target of two per cent of GDP) rather than addressing real human security needs and national spending priorities.
A nuclear-armed military alliance
Around 180 nuclear weapons – currently being upgraded – are stationed at bases across Europe as part of NATO defence policy, in violation of international law and in spite of massive opposition. Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system is assigned to NATO.
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we can build a more peaceful world
free from the threat of nuclear war.
