NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 28, 2022

Q: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of the United States, Canada and 28 European nations who have agreed to defend each other in response to an attack by any external party. Its headquarters is in Brussels, Belgium. Where is Belgium?

Circle the area on this map

Q: NATO was formed in 1949 by the United States, Canada and 10 European nations worried about the expanding power of the Soviet Union, and it added member nations over the years. How many nations have joined the alliance since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991?

A. 6

B. 10

C. 14

D. 18

C. The 14 nations in eastern and central Europe were once controlled or dominated by the Soviet Union. Before invading Ukraine last week, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine not be allowed to join NATO as it had wanted. He also accused the U.S. and its allies of trying to “crush us, beat us down and finish us off” after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Q: Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and the alliance is not sending forces to fight the Russian invasion. Ukraine is one of 15 nations that were once republics of the Soviet Union. Are any of these nations now members of NATO?

A. Yes

B. No

A. Three small nations on the Baltic Sea – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – were the first republics to declare independence from the tottering Soviet Union in 1990. The rest emerged after the Soviet dissolution in 1991. The three Baltic nations are members of NATO, which has vowed to protect “every inch” of its members’ territory.

Q: After the creation of NATO, the Soviet Union formed its own military alliance. It was named after the capital of which nation that is now a member of NATO?

A. Albania

B. Hungary

C. Poland

D. Romania

C. The Warsaw Pact got its name from Poland’s capital. The then communist governments of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union signed the pact in 1955. When Hungary tried to leave the Pact in 1956, Soviet troops invaded and overthrew the government.

Q: While all members of NATO are in North America and Europe, which NATO nation is mostly in Asia?

A. Albania

B. Greece

C. Romania

D. Turkey

D. A small part of Turkey is in Europe, while most of it occupies Asia’s Anatolian Peninsula. Turkey and its Mediterranean Sea neighbor – and historic rival – Greece joined NATO in 1952. They were the first nations to join the original 12 nations of the alliance.