Abstract: The United States and its Western allies formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 to deter the Soviet Union, which threatened to expand the communist sphere of influence from Eastern to Western Europe after the end of the Second World War in 1945.

In 2002, during the Prague Summit, seven Baltic & East European states joined the Alliance and increased the member states to twenty-six.. After the events of September 11,2001, the Alliance established the NATO/Russia Council in mid 2002 to face the challenges posed by terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

In the Gulf Region, the Alliance is still negotiating with all the concerned parties to arrive at the best possible form of cooperation. Some of the GCC States have recently participated in the Broader Middle East Conference, held in Rome, March 2005.