NATO is an international organization whose objective is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means. As provided in article 5 of the Washington Treaty, "the parties agree that an armed attack against one or several of them, occurring in Europe or North America, will be considered as an attack directed against all of them (...) ”.
NATO is currently made up of 30 Allies: the twelve founding countries (United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Holland, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, the United Kingdom and Portugal), Greece, Turkey (which joined in 1952), the Federal Republic of Germany (1955), Spain (1982), Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic (1999), Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009) , Montenegro (2017) and North Macedonia (2020).
On May 31, 2022, the 40th anniversary of Spain's entry into NATO is celebrated and on June 29 and 30, the Heads of State and Government of the Allied countries meet at the NATO Summit in Madrid. In this meeting the leaders decide on the new strategic concept. The strategic concept is NATO's most important document, second only to the Washington Treaty. It reaffirms the values and role of NATO and defines the security challenges that the Alliance must face.
Spain, since joining the organization, has been a reliable, safe and committed ally with the Atlantic Alliance and the values it represents.
The Torrejón de Ardoz NATO Air Operations Center (CAOC-TJ) has its headquarters in Spain, which controls the airspace of the southern half of Europe together with other military capabilities such as Command and Control entities, as well as the High Availability Land Headquarters in Bétera (Valencia), or the HRF (M) High Availability Maritime Headquarters in Rota (Cádiz).
Correos dedicates a stamp to this important anniversary, as well as to the NATO meeting held in Madrid.
