The U.S. Senate has passed a legislative provision which was contained in the National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA) for the fiscal year 2020, that brings India at par with America’s NATO allies and countries like Israel and South Korea for increasing defence cooperation. Once it’s passed, India will be given a Nato ally like status.
What is NATO?
- NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 North American and European countries.
- The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949
- NATO’s purpose is to guarantee the freedom and securityof its members through political and military means.
- POLITICAL – NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.
- MILITARY – NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO’s founding treaty – Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organizations.
- NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
- NATO’s Headquarters are located in Evere, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.
- Members:NATO has thirty members, mainly in Europe and North America.
- The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020
- All decisions of NATO are taken by consensus
- Meaning and importance of NATO ally status to India
- The status does not automatically include a mutual defence pact with the United States but still confers a variety of military and financial advantages that otherwise are not obtainable to other non-NATO countries.
- The amendment provides for increased US-India defence cooperation in the Indian Ocean in areas of humanitarian assistance, counter-terrorism, counter-piracy and maritime security.
