“NATO is a defensive Alliance. NATO’s greatest responsibility is to protect and defend our territory and our populations against attack. Any attack against one Ally will be regarded as an attack against us all, as set out in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. We will continue to stand together and act together, on the basis of solidarity, shared purpose, and fair burden-sharing.”

Thus concurred the NATO’s leaders of 29 allied countries in the very first article of the declaration of the Leaders’ Summit, which took place in Brussels in July 11-12, 2018. This statement is underlined occasionally throughout the remaining 78 articles, as if summarising the most fundamental principles enshrined in the NATO’s founding document of Washington Treaty. It is intended as a remonstrance or a reminder in an environment where leaders have almost discarded diplomatic channels to behave according to their own domestic policies. This yearning for the neglect of cooperation and the concomitant stress on a common goal lacking since the end of the Warsaw Pact are significant in terms of representing the lofty ideals of NATO.