<P> From the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, France pursued a military strategy of independence from NATO under a policy dubbed "Gaullo - Mitterrandism". Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated the return of France to the integrated military command and the Defence Planning Committee in 2009, the latter being disbanded the following year . France remains the only NATO member outside the Nuclear Planning Group and unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, will not commit its nuclear - armed submarines to the alliance . Few members spend more than two percent of their gross domestic product on defence, with the United States accounting for three quarters of NATO defense spending . </P> <P> New membership in the alliance has been largely from Central and Eastern Europe, including former members of the Warsaw Pact . Accession to the alliance is governed with individual Membership Action Plans, and requires approval by each current member . NATO currently has two candidate countries that are in the process of joining the alliance: Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Macedonia . In NATO official statements, the Republic of Macedonia is always referred to as the "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", with a footnote stating that "Turkey recognizes the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name". Though Macedonia completed its requirements for membership at the same time as Croatia and Albania, who joined NATO in 2009, its accession was blocked by Greece pending a resolution of the Macedonia naming dispute . In order to support each other in the process, new and potential members in the region formed the Adriatic Charter in 2003 . Georgia was also named as an aspiring member, and was promised "future membership" during the 2008 summit in Bucharest, though in 2014, US President Barack Obama said the country was not "currently on a path" to membership . </P> <P> Russia continues to oppose further expansion, seeing it as inconsistent with understandings between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and European and American negotiators that allowed for a peaceful German reunification . NATO's expansion efforts are often seen by Moscow leaders as a continuation of a Cold War attempt to surround and isolate Russia, though they have also been criticised in the West . A June 2016 Levada poll found that 68% of Russians think that deploying NATO troops in the Baltic states and Poland--former Eastern bloc countries bordering Russia--is a threat to Russia . Ukraine's relationship with NATO and Europe has been politically divisive, and contributed to "Euromaidan" protests that saw the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 . In March 2014, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk reiterated the government's stance that Ukraine is not seeking NATO membership . Ukraine's president subsequently signed a bill dropping his nation's nonaligned status in order to pursue NATO membership, but signaled that it would hold a referendum before seeking to join . Ukraine is one of eight countries in Eastern Europe with an Individual Partnership Action Plan . IPAPs began in 2002, and are open to countries that have the political will and ability to deepen their relationship with NATO . </P> <P> A 2006 study in the journal Security Studies argued that NATO enlargement contributed to democratic consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe . </P>

Which nations joined nato when it was created in 1949