History Write short note

(a) 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, Netherland, Portugal, Turkey, West Germany, Greece, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Spain.
A 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 an 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 in the decision-making process of NATO. To counter America’s influential position in NATO, Soviet Russia brought together the communist countries in Europe and a treaty commonly known as the ‘Warsaw Pact’.

(b) ANZUS Treaty:

• The word ‘ANZUS’ stands for Australia(A), New Zealand (NZ), and the United States of America(US).
• These nations signed a treaty on 1st September 1951. This treaty was signed for their collective security and therefore is commonly known as ANZUS Treaty.
• These nations are in the Pacific region.
• Hence, this treaty is also described as a ‘three-way defense pact’.
• This was the first of its kind.
• This treaty had one more objective to protect the countries in the Pacific Ocean from communist China.

(c) 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 in Manila (Philippines) to ensure the collective defense of the countries in South East 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 South East 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 times of peace, they would extend help for the social and the economic development of each other. However, this treaty had a number of flaws. Although it was named as the treaty of the South East Asian countries, only three countries from Asia namely Thailand, the Philippines, and Pakistan were included in it. The western power did not have any deep understanding of the problems of the Asian countries.
• The headquarters of SEATO was located in Thailand. In 1973, Pakistan withdrew from it. In 1975 France stopped providing monetary help to this organization.
• On 30th June 1977, this Organisation was officially dissolved.

(d) 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.

SAARC is laden with many difficult issues to tackle such as

• The economic disparity among the member nations.
• Expenditure allotment for defense.
• Inadequate infrastructure.
• Underdevelopment of agricultural sector.
• Rising terrorism.
• Population explosion.
• Insufficient trade.
• Divergent political systems.
• Religious-lingual diversity etc.