International Relations · India–EU, France & UK Relations
The concept being tested: NATO - member states and expansion.
Consider the following countries: I. Austria II. Bulgaria III. Croatia IV. Serbia V. Sweden VI. North Macedonia How many of the above are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?
Four of the six countries are NATO members. Bulgaria joined in 2004 as part of the seven-nation post-Cold War enlargement round, and Croatia joined in 2009 alongside Albania. North Macedonia became a member in 2020, once the 2018 Prespa Agreement settled its naming dispute with Greece and unblocked its accession. Sweden joined in March 2024, becoming NATO's 32nd member and ending two centuries of military non-alignment after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine pushed it, and Finland before it in 2023, into the alliance. Austria and Serbia remain outside NATO: Austria has been constitutionally neutral since its 1955 State Treaty, and Serbia's parliament declared military neutrality in 2007, a stance still shaped by NATO's 1999 bombing campaign over Kosovo. That gives four members out of six, making Only four the correct count.
What UPSC was testing
The question checks whether aspirants have updated NATO's roster with its newest members, Sweden and North Macedonia, and whether they can distinguish NATO membership from EU membership or general Western alignment, since Austria and Serbia are both closely tied to Europe yet have stayed outside the alliance by deliberate neutrality.
How often this comes up
This concept has appeared 5 times in UPSC Prelims General Studies Paper I between 2015 and 2025 — in 2016, 2017, 2023 and 2025.
The option-by-option autopsy for this question — why each of the other three is wrong, and which neighbouring concept each one was built from — is in the app.