&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Is OTAN NATO written backwards? Not really! Here's why both words are seen on defence bloc's sign")
NATO, or The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is also seen written with the letters switched backwards - OTAN. While it might look like NATO has simply been written as OTAN for some diplomatic or official reason, that is not the case. NATO is an intergovernmental transnational military alliance that came into existence on 4 April 1949. It has 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American-and the defence bloc works for the collective security of all nations that are a part of the alliance. Its main aim was to create a safe environment during the Cold War and defend countries against the threat posed by the Soviet Union. However, it continues to remain active long after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
NATO-OTAN are not letters merely arranged backwards. While NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, OTAN is the abbreviation of its French name - Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord.
Why does NATO have a French name?
The reason for having a French name also for NATO is that France was one of the original twelve founding members of NATO in 1949. Also, the bloc has two official languages - English and French. So the defence bloc's name is written both in English and French. Besides, French has held a prominent place as a language in international diplomacy.
Having started with 12 members, NATO has grown over the years, with new members being added ten times. Sweden was the most recent addition, having joined the alliance on 7 March 2024. There are four aspiring members: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine. Kyiv has been vying to become a member of NATO for years now. It urged to hasten its application after Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022. NATO's expansion has become a reason for increasing tensions with countries like Russia.
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The bloc doesn't meet every year but only when new policies or new member nations are set to be introduced. To date, 34 NATO summits have happened. The most recent one was held in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 24 and 25. In this edition, it was decided to increase defence spending by each country. According to the new language, "allies commit to invest 5 per cent of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence-and security-related spending by 2035." Most of the member nations agreed, while Spain said it would only invest two per cent.
