Major non-NATO ally

  United States

  NATO members

  Major non-NATO allies

  Former major non-NATO allies (Afghanistan)

Note: political borders on this map do not correspond to those officially recognized by the United States government.

Major non-NATO ally (MNNA) is a designation given by the United States government to countries that have strategic working relationships with the U.S. Armed Forces while not being members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). While the status does not automatically constitute a mutual defense pact (as would be the case through NATO membership) with the United States, it does confer a variety of military and financial advantages that are otherwise unobtainable by non-NATO countries. There are currently 19 major non-NATO allies across four continents: 11 in Asia, 3 in Africa, 3 in South America, and 2 in Oceania.

History

MNNA status was first created in 1987, when Congress added section 2350a — otherwise known as the Sam Nunn Amendment — to Title 10 of the United States Code. It stipulated that cooperative research and development agreements could be enacted with non-NATO allies by the Secretary of Defense with the concurrence of the Secretary of State. The initial MNNAs were Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, and South Korea. In 1996, major non-NATO allies received additional military and financial benefits when section 2321k was added to Title 22 of the United States Code (also known as section 517 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961), which added MNNAs to many of the same exemptions from the Arms Export Control Act that were enjoyed by NATO members. It also authorized the President to designate a country as an MNNA thirty days after notifying Congress. When enacted, the statute designated the initial five countries as major non-NATO allies, and added Jordan and New Zealand to the list.

Pakistan

See also: Pakistan–NATO relations

The designation of certain countries as MNNAs has not been without controversy, as has been the case with Pakistan, which was designated as an MNNA by President George W. Bush in 2002. In 2017, Ted Poe (R–TX) and Rick Nolan (D–MN) from the House of Representatives introduced H.R. 3000; a bill to revoke Pakistan's position as an MNNA, citing inadequate counterterrorism efforts, the harboring of Osama bin Laden, and consistent Pakistani support for the Taliban. The bill never received a vote, but in 2021, U.S. Representative Andy Biggs introduced H.R. 35 — another version of the legislation.

In 2017, Joseph Dunford, erstwhile chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence of having ties to terrorist groups. Reuters reported that "possible Trump administration responses being discussed include expanding U.S. drone strikes and perhaps eventually downgrading Pakistan's status as a major non-NATO ally." In January 2023, Biggs introduced a bill to remove Pakistan's MNNA status.

Benefits

Countries designated as MNNAs are eligible for the following benefits:

• Entry into cooperative research and development projects with the Department of Defense (DoD) on a shared-cost basis;
• Participation in certain counterterrorism initiatives;
• Purchase of depleted uranium anti-tank rounds;
• Priority delivery of military surplus (ranging from military rations to naval ships);
• Possession of War Reserve Stocks of DoD-owned equipment that are kept outside of American military bases;
• Loans of equipment and materials for cooperative research and development projects and evaluations;
• Permission to use American financing for the purchase or lease of certain defense equipment;
• Reciprocal training;
• Expedited export processing of space technology;
• Permission for the country's corporations to bid on certain DoD contracts for the repair and maintenance of military equipment outside of the United States.

References

Template:Afghanistan–United States relations Template:Australia–United States relations Template:Bahrain–United States relations Template:Egypt–United States relations Template:Israel–United States relations Template:Japan–United States relations

Template:South Korea–United States relations Template:Taiwan–United States relations

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