NATO (http://www.nato.int) was signed by the North Atlantic Treaty 4 April 1949, also referred to as the Washington Treaty. It was born by 12 founding states - Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Iceland, Luxembourg, Canada, Norway, Portugal, Italy, USA and the United Kingdom. With the accession to the North Atlantic Treaty, in the next waves of enlargement, other Member States were gradually added to Greece and Turkey (1952), the Federal Republic of Germany (1955), Spain (1982), Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009). Slovakia became a member of NATO on 29 March 2004.
A representative of the Health Department is a member of the Joint Medical Committee at NATO headquarters in Europe.
