NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)
At the Treaty of Brussels 1948, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK formed an alliance called the Western European Union. In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington D.C., and linked the Western European Union with the USA, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. In 1952 Greece and Turkey also joined, and in 1955 West Germany, but the Soviet Union’s attempts to join in 1954 were rejected. This alliance’s purpose was to oppose the spreading of communism throughout the world, but carried on existing beyond the end of the Cold War and still exists today.
