US NATO Ambassador Julianne Smith, while speaking on North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and strengthening relationships with South Asia and the Indo-Pacific, virtually said the organisation is ready to engage more with India if the country is interested. The Ambassador stressed that currently there are no plans by the alliance to expand this to a broader global military alliance.
Appreciating India’s role in the Russia-Ukraine war, the US envoy said that she is grateful for the humanitarian assistance that the country has been able to provide.
“The NATO alliance is open to more engagement should India seek that. NATO currently has 40 different partners around the World and each individual partnership is different. Various countries come to the door seeking different levels of political engagement, sometimes countries are much more interested in working on interoperability, and standardization questions. So, they vary. But, the message that has already been sent back to India is that the NATO alliance is certainly open to more engagement with India, should that country take interest in pursuing that,” Smith said in a virtual press briefing.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization currently has 30 members.
