Donald Trump is, without a doubt, a man who is an expert in opening new avenues (or at least in proposing them), but there is no formula to expel a country from NATO, as he has proposed doing with Spain. The only possible way, according to the organization’s statutes, for a country to leave the alliance is voluntary withdrawal.
This is stated in article 13. For a country to leave the alliance, at least 20 years must have passed since its accession to the military bloc and it must notify the United States Government of its resignation. Washington must subsequently communicate the decision to the rest of the members of the Atlantic alliance.
After formal notification, One year must pass until the decision becomes effectivebut, in the 76 years of NATO, no country has done so. At least not completely.
There is, therefore, no formula to expel a member country (nor a coercive mechanism to force its exit), as Trump suggested this Thursday during a meeting with the president of Finland. Alexander Stubb.
Trump’s proposal this Thursday is based on Government’s refusal to Pedro Sanchez a increase defense spending until el 5 percent of GDP, as the rest of the members of the alliance have accepted.
“They have no excuse not to do it. But that’s okay. Maybe they should expel them from NATO, frankly,” Trump said this Thursday in the presence of Stubb.
The moth-eaten slogans
The only time a country has come close to leaving the alliance was, precisely, Spain in 1986. In that year, citizens they voted in a referendummarked by the old motto “No NATO, bases outside”, whether or not it should remain within the alliance.
56.85% of Spaniards chose to remain within the organization, while 43.15% preferred the “no” vote. In that way, Spain, who had joined in 1982, remained within an alliance that has recovered its old prestige in recent years.
The arrival of the referendum represented a historic turn within the PSOE and, most especially, of the then president Felipe González. The socialists had opposed joining the organization in 1982 with their famous slogan “NATO not to enter”, but chose to defend permanence in 1986.
Of course, participation was conditional on Spain not joining the integrated military structure of NATO, maintaining the prohibition of installing, storing or introducing nuclear weapons into Spanish territory and progressively reducing the military presence of US bases.
By not joining the integrated military structure, Spain did not participate until 1999 in the unified command and control of the military forces of the alliance, so it maintained its own management and total sovereignty over the Armed Forces.
Only in the Basque Country, Navarra, the Canary Islands and Catalonia did the votes in favor of “no” exceed the votes in favor of “yes”. Curiously, both the PNV and the old CiU had been in favor of remaining in NATO. The position was also shared by CDS.
France and Greece
In 1966, France, under the leadership of Charles de Gaullewithdrew from the integrated military command of the Atlantic Alliance, which meant that he ceased to participate in the common military command and control structure, although he remained a political member of the organization
The decision involved France ordering the departure of foreign troops and the transfer of NATO military bases outside its territory. As a consequence, the organization’s Supreme Headquarters in Europe moved from Paris to Brussels, where it remains to this day.
De Gaulle wanted to reaffirm the french national sovereignty and prevent US military hegemony in Europe, in addition to developing an independent nuclear defense.
The withdrawal lasted until 2009, when France fully rejoined NATO’s integrated military structure under the Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.
A similar case involved Greece in 1974when he withdrew from the military structure in protest against the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, after a coup d’état in Cyprus supported by Athens that sought union with Greece.
The withdrawal was a political act of protest, as Greece believed that NATO and the United States had not adequately protected its security interests against Turkey.
The situation lasted until 1980when, after negotiations and diplomatic efforts, Greece rejoined the integrated military structure.
These are situations that show that, although a country can make the decision to leave NATO totally or partially, no provision of the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in 1949, contemplates suspension of membership rights, much less the expulsion of an ally.