Military power of Belarus & NATO

Belarus is a country located in Eastern Europe with an area of 207,595 km² (land boundries: 3,599 km and costline 0 km (landlocked)). The capital of Belarus is Minsk. The number of inhabitants is 9,349,645.

Belarus has close security ties with Russia. In 2022, Belarus allowed Russian military forces to stage on its territory during its invasion of Ukraine. Russia is the principal supplier of arms to Belarus, and Belarusian troops reportedly train on Russian equipment. The inventory of the Belarus Armed Forces is comprised mostly of Russian andSoviet-origin equipment, and since 2010 Russia is the leading provider of arms. Belarus's defense industry manufactures some equipment (mostly modernized Soviet designs).

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (North Atlantic Alliance) is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949. NATO is a system of collective security: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by others countries. NATO's main headquarters are located in Brussels. The following twelve states signed the treaty and became the founding members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and United States. The following states joined the treaty after 1949: Greece, Germany, Turkey and Spain. Members who joined after the dissolution of the Soviet Union: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

Before and during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several NATO countries sent army to reinforce the alliance's eastern flank. Alliance had deployed 40,000 troops along its 2,500 kilometres long Eastern flank to deter possible Russian aggression. On 5 July the North Atlantic Alliance members signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland and formally approved the decisions of the NATO summit.

Finland joined the alliance on 4 April 2023.