Nato, Anzus, Seato, Cento, Warsaw Pact

NATO, ANZUS, SEATO, CENTO, Warsaw Pact:

1. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation - 1949):

NATO was an alliance created to protect 29 of the European countries from the expansionist policy of Soviet Russia. Its members included Norway, France, Italy, Denmark, Great Britain, America, Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, West Germany, Greece, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, Luxemburg, and Spain.

Few of the important terms included in the NATO alliance are as follows:

An attack on any of the member countries of the alliance would be treated as the attack on all member countries; all of the member countries will try to maintain peace and security; any of the mutual issues among the member countries shall be resolved through discussions.

The headquarters of NATO are in Paris. America had a significant influence on the decision-making process of NATO. To counter America’s influential position in NATO, Soviet Russia brought together the communist countries in Europe and signed a treaty commonly known as the ‘Warsaw Pact’.

2. ANZUS Treaty:

Australia (A), New Zealand (NZ), and the United States of America (US) signed a treaty on 1^st September 1951. This treaty signed by the three nations for their collective security is commonly known as the ANZUS treaty. These nations are in the Pacific Ocean region. Hence, this treaty is also described as a 'three-way defense pact' in the Pacific region.

This was the first instance of its kind; two nations in the British Commonwealth were independently making a pact with America. In a way, it indicated that these countries did not want England and France to have any upper hand in the matters of their national security. This treaty had one more objective to protect the countries in the Pacific Ocean from communist China.

3. SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation):

England, America, France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines came together and signed a treaty on 8th September 1954 at Manila (Philippines), to ensure the collective defense of the countries in Southeast Asia. This treaty is also known as the ‘Southeast Asia Collective Defence Treaty’ or ‘Manila Pact’. The pact was mainly intended to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. It was decided that if any of the nations included in the pact was attacked, then other nations signing the pact would collectively stand up against it and in the times of peace they would extend help for ANZUS Treaty :

the social and economic development of each other. However, there were a number of flaws in the treaty. Although it was named as a treaty of southeast Asian countries, only three countries from Asia, namely, Thailand, Philippines, and Pakistan, were included in it. Rest all were western nations, who neither geographically, nor historically had any affiliation with the three Asian countries. They were geographically distanced from Asia by thousands of kilometers. They did not have any deep understanding of the problems of the Asian countries. Therefore, the military viability of this treaty was very limited. The headquarters of SEATO was located in Thailand. However, the organisation did not have its own military. In 1973, Pakistan withdrew from it. In 1975, France stopped providing monetary help to this organisation. On 30th June 1977, this organisation was officially dissolved.

4. CENTO (Central Treaty Organisation):

CENTO, was known earlier as ‘Baghdad Pact’ or ‘Middle East Treaty Organisation’ (METO), is a treaty among four nations, namely, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, and England. This treaty was signed on 24^th February 1955. Iraq joined later.

In 1958, in a military coup, the monarchy of Iraq was removed from power, and the Iraqi Republic was established. Iraqi revolutionists overthrew the government that favoured the western countries. The new regime opposed Baghdad Pact and Iraq withdrew from it in 1959. With this, the name of the pact was changed to CENTO and its headquarters were moved to Ankara (Turkey).

America encouraged them to continue the treaty with an intention to put a check on the spread of communism by Soviet Russia. America started providing the member nations of CENTO economic and military aid. It was afraid that if Soviet Russia attacked any of the member nations, then all members should fight it collectively. However, if such a situation emerged in reality, none of the member countries had the military capacity to fight. Excepting the United Kingdom, the rest of the three were in need of economic and technological aid but America was too involved in many other matters, to pay attention to their needs. Hence, the member nations of CENTO were not very satisfied. They wanted to withdraw from the treaty and act independently. Iran and Pakistan withdrew from this treaty and the CENTO became non-operational.

Sino-Soviet Security Pact:

Earlier, Soviet Russia had signed a defense treaty with China in 1950. Now, with this new pact Soviet Russia agreed to provide economic, industrial, technological aid to China.

5. Warsaw Pact:

To oppose American policies and to strengthen communist nations, Soviet Russia brought together seven communist countries in eastern and central Europe known as 'Eastern Bloc' and signed a treaty commonly known as Warsaw Pact. Along with Soviet Russia, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania signed this treaty. Albania withdrew from it in 1968.