Lithuania joined NATO as a full and equal member with six other European nations

Lithuania joined NATO as a full and equal member with six other European nations: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in the biggest expansion in the history of the alliance. The new members were welcomed by US President George W.Bush during a ceremony in Washington. “Membership in Nato is the achievement of our long-standing goal to rejoin the Euro-Atlantic family of nations. By virtue of our values, we have always felt that we belonged to this family, from which we have been separated. This round of Nato enlargement, the biggest ever, embraces countries from the Baltic to the Adriatic and Blask Seas. It represents another important step toward the fulfillment of our joint vision of an undivided, democratic and peaceful Europe. Today, nearly 50 million more people in Europe will feel more secure in the knowledge that history will not repeat itself,” writes the International Herald Tribune in an article contributed by the Prime Ministers of the 7 new Nato members. With the admission of the seven new countries, Nato now has 26 members.