<Tr> <Td> 15 </Td> <Td> Alexander Vershbow </Td> <Td> United States </Td> <Td> 2012--2016 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 16 </Td> <Td> Rose Gottemoeller </Td> <Td> United States </Td> <Td> 2016--present </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Acting Secretary General </Td> </Tr> <P> The body that sets broad strategic goals for NATO is the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO - PA) which meets at the Annual Session, and one other time during the year, and is the organ that directly interacts with the parliamentary structures of the national governments of the member states which appoint Permanent Members, or ambassadors to NATO . The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is made up of legislators from the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance as well as thirteen associate members . Karl A. Lamers, German Deputy Chairman of the Defence Committee of the Bundestag and a member of the Christian Democratic Union, became president of the assembly in 2010 . It is however officially a different structure from NATO, and has as aim to join together deputies of NATO countries in order to discuss security policies on the NATO Council . </P>

Twelve original member of nato when the organization formed in 1949