Which alliance served as the Eastern counterpart to NATO during the Cold War?

• A. Warsaw Pact
• B. SEATO
• C. CENTO
• D. Shanghai Pact

Answer: (A)

In the Cold War, Europe split into two main military blocs. NATO stood as the Western alliance led by the United States, while the Eastern counterpart was the Warsaw Pact, a Soviet-led mutual-defense treaty formed in 1955 among the Soviet Union and several Eastern European states. Its purpose was to coordinate defense across the bloc and deter Western military power, creating a formal, integrated command structure that mirrored NATO on the other side of the Iron Curtain. The pact remained in effect until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, which marked the end of that division.

The other options refer to regional security arrangements in different parts of the world: SEATO focused on Southeast Asia, CENTO on the Middle East and Central Asia, and the Shanghai Pact is associated with East Asian alignment but did not serve as a direct, continent-wide counterpart to NATO like the Warsaw Pact did.