The North Atlantic Treaty Organization not only is the longest-lived alliance in history, but also is the most successful, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a joint session of the U.S. Congress on the day before the alliance’s 70th anniversary.
Stoltenberg, whose term as NATO’s civilian leader was extended through 2022, emphasized this message in his address: "It’s good to have friends."
In addition to members of both houses of Congress, the audience in the House chamber included members of the Cabinet and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The NATO alliance grew out of the experiences of the early 20th century, when two world wars were born out of conflicts that had been nearly constant on the European continent for hundreds of years.
Its founding treaty states that membership is open to any European state in a position to further the principles of this treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area.