Withdrawal from NATO

In 1966 due to souring relations between Washington and Paris because of the refusal to integrate France's nuclear deterrent with other North Atlantic powers, or accept any collective form of control over its armed forces, the French president Charles de Gaulle downgraded France's membership in NATO and withdrew France from the U.S.-led military command to pursue an independent defense system.[2] However, the twenty-year rule prevented France from completely leaving NATO altogether.[3] One consequence of this withdrawal was the movement of NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe from Rocquencourt (in France) to the city of Mons in Belgium. This changed in 2009 when president Nicolas Sarkozy changed course and returned France to full participation, and the French Parliament backed this decision with a vote of confidence.[4]

Currently, of the noted political parties in France; those advocating France withdraw from NATO include the far-right, National Rally and the Popular Republican Union,[5] together with the far-left La France Insoumise and the French Communist Party. The right-wing Gaullist Debout la France advocates reversing the 2009 decision for France returning to NATO command.[6] In a 2017 poll of French public opinion toward NATO, 60% of French people have a favourable viewpoint, compared to 34% who have an unfavourable viewpoint.[7]

In 1964, due to the Cyprus crisis, Greece withdrew military units from NATO forces in the Southern Mediterranean, over threats of invasion of Cyprus by fellow NATO member Turkey.[8] Later in 1974 due to the invasion of Cyprus by Turkish forces, Greece withdrew from NATO military command. Notwithstanding, the country did not withdraw entirely from the organisation, but became significantly less active.[9]

In 1980, the Greek foreign minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis made remarks about the situation where he could see Greece fully withdrawing from the organisation. However, later diplomatic pressure from the United States led to Greece fully re-integrating with the alliance.[10]

Iceland is unique amongst NATO members that it does not have a standing army, and its defence forces consists of a militarised coastguard and a paramilitary peacekeeping force. Iceland's strong pacifist history has led to considerable opposition to NATO membership in Iceland. Nevertheless, the country is host to a notable United States Navy base at Keflavík airport, near the country's capital Reykjavík. Plus, its location in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean makes a strategic point for intelligence and signals information.[11]

The country's main nonpartisan pressure group for Iceland leaving NATO is Samtök hernaðarandstæðinga, which is a branch of War Resisters' International.

In 2019 while during a visit by the Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to Iceland, the Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir spoke of her support for withdrawing Iceland from NATO. Her party, the Left-Green Movement, is the senior partner of the Icelandic government also supports withdrawing, but there isn't a majority in the Icelandic parliament for withdrawing.[12]

The 2020 Montenegrin parliamentary election resulted in a victory for opposition parties for the first time in thirty years. Several of those parties, including the Democratic Front, oppose NATO membership.[13][14]

The general consensus about the foreign and defence policy of the Netherlands is being a member of the alliance. Its membership is supported by all five main establishment parties in the Staten-General; the liberal VVD,[15] the social-democratic PvdA,[16] the christian-democrat CDA,[17] right-wing populist PVV,[18] and social-liberal D66.[19][20] Other parties are supportive but would like to reform the alliance such as the green-socialist GroenLinks.[21] While the far-right populist Forum voor Democratie supports NATO membership, it was reported by the investigative show Zembla that privately the party's leader Thierry Baudet would like the Netherlands to leave NATO and alight the country's foreign policy with Russia.[22][23]

Some political parties in Romania oppose Romanian membership in NATO. One of them is Noua Dreaptă, which is also against the European Union.[24]

Since the 2016 attempted coup d'état and warming relations between Turkey and Russia, there has been calls for Turkey to leave or be thrown out of NATO.[25][26][27] However, Turkey’s proxy conflict with Russia has made it a valuable ally to NATO, despite tensions between Turkey and some other NATO states.

Membership of NATO is considered a non-debatable subject within the whole United Kingdom's defence and foreign policy framework. Membership is supported by the major parties in the UK, including the Conservatives,[28] Labour [29] and the Liberal Democrats.[30] Of the UK-wide parties in the House of Commons, only the Green Party is against NATO membership,[31] although there are individual Members of Parliament, especially those in the left of Labour, who support the UK withdrawing from NATO, such as Jeremy Corbyn.[32][33] Support for NATO is high in the United Kingdom with a poll in 2017 indicating that 62% of British people have a favourable view of NATO, compared with only 16% having unfavourable view of the Alliance.[34]

The situation with whether an independent Scotland should join NATO if it ever achieves independence, has been fraught within supporters of an independent Scotland. Originally the Scottish National Party was against NATO membership, much of this was due to the party's non-nuclear stance with Scotland hosting the Trident nuclear programme at the Clyde Naval Base. This changed in 2012, when the SNP under the leadership of Alex Salmond changed its manifesto saying that it would support NATO membership and would join NATO if Scotland ever becomes independent, provided the alliance respect Scotland's non-nuclear stance.[35] This led to some senior members of the SNP to leave the party, including John Finnie and Jean Urquhart.[36] Other independence parties including the Scottish Socialist Party [37] and the Scottish Green Party [38] as well as some in the SNP (mainly on the left) do not support Scotland's membership and would not want to join if Scotland becomes independent.

Compared to the Scottish nationalists, the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru is completely opposed to NATO membership and supports Welsh withdraw from the alliance once an independent Wales is achieved.[39][40] The leader of Plaid Cymru at the time, Leanne Wood went even as far as criticizing her Scottish counterparts in interview.[41]

Among the parties in Northern Ireland, NATO policy tends to follow along the unionist-nationalist axis using the basis on the UK's membership and Ireland's non-alignment. All the main parties that support Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom including the Ulster Unionists [42] and the Democratic Unionist [43] parties, support NATO membership. While the parties that advocate unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland, including SDLP and Sinn Féin, support Irish neutrality. Among the non-sectarian parties which are parties are neither unionist or nationalist; the Alliance Party supports NATO membership,[44] while the Green Party of Northern Ireland are ambiguous in its viewpoint.

Among British non-governmental organisations, both the pacifist Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [45] and the Stop the War Coalition [46] advocates British withdraw from the alliance.

Donald Trump expressed interest in withdrawing from the organisation during his 2016 presidential campaign. However, after he was inaugurated in 2017, he stated that the United States would protect allies in the event that Article V is invoked.[47][48][49] Nevertheless, the New York Times reported in 2019 that a year earlier, he had already mentioned several times privately that he wanted the United States to leave NATO.[50] Such concerns led the House of Representatives in January 2019, to pass the NATO Support Act (H.R. 676), confirming Congress' support for NATO and prohibiting funds being used for withdrawing from NATO.[51] On December 11, 2019, the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill to be put in front of Congress which would require Congressional approval for American withdrawal from NATO.[52][53]

Polling conducted by Pew Research Center in 2017, said that 62% of Americans are favourable to NATO compared to 23% who are not favourable. In terms of voters, over three-quarters of Democrats are favourable with just 48% of Republicans favourable. Also they said that a plurality of those surveyed, 47% said NATO does too little globally.[7] In further polling in 2019 on the eve of NATO's 70th birthday, 77% of Americans say being a member of NATO is good for the United States.[54]

While both major parties support NATO membership,[55] all the major third parties including the Green Party,[56] the Libertarian Party,[57] and the Constitution Party[58] support withdrawing the United States from NATO.

When France joined NATO in 1949, the northern African territory of Algeria was part of Metropolitan France. By virtue of this, Algeria was part of NATO since its inception. In fact Article VI clearly states that an armed attack on Algeria would considered an attack on NATO.

When Algeria gained its independence from France in 1962, its membership was ceased and the Article VI cause was removed. Like many Maghreb and Arab countries, it aligned itself with the Soviet Union which it ended for Algeria with the end of the Cold War. Since 2000, Algeria has participated in NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue forum.

On the time of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949, the Mediterranean island of Malta was a dependent territory in a form of a self-governing crown colony of the United Kingdom. Dependent territories like Malta had their international memberships of their mother country, so the island was part of NATO. In fact, the headquarters of the Allied Forces Mediterranean was based in the town of Floriana between 1952 and 1965.

When Malta gained independence in 1964, the country did not apply to join NATO, due to the relations between NATO and the prime minister George Borg Olivier at the time, but nevertheless supported the alliance.[59] This changed in 1971, when the Labour's Dom Mintoff was elected as prime minister and stated that Malta is neutral in its foreign policy,[60] a position which was later enacted into the country's constitution in 1974. Later the country joined the Non-Aligned Movement in 1979, at the same time when the British Royal Navy left its base in Malta Dockyard.

In 1995, Malta joined NATO's Partnership for Peace defence program. However, it withdrew its membership a year later in 1996 by the newly elected Labour government. Maltese foreign policy changed notably in 2004, with the country joining the European Union and it re-joined the PfP program in 2008, pointing to a change in the island's foreign relations.

Membership of NATO is not supported by any of the country's political parties including current governing Labour and the opposition Nationalists. NATO's secretary-general Stoltenberg says the alliance fully respects Malta's position of neutrality, and put no pressure for the country to join the alliance.[61]

Like Malta, Cyprus was a crown colony at the time of the United Kingdom until it gained independence in 1960. As so, Cyprus was also a member of the NATO under the British crown. However the reason for Cyprus' non-membership due to the Cyprus conflict and relations between Greece and Turkey. This reason even also extends to Cyprus' non-participation in the Partnership for Peace program.