NATO invites Albania and Croatia to accession talks, Georgia’s and Ukraine’s aspirations welcomed too
Allied leaders decided to invite Albania and Croatia to begin accession talks with NATO. The decision was announced at the Summit meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government in the Romanian capital Bucharest. The Heads of State and Government of the 26 NATO countries held an extraordinary session in the presence of their counterparts from Croatia and Albania to welcome these two new members.
“The countries that join us can be rightly proud of what they have achieved in meeting NATO’s demanding criteria for membership. The many years of hard work within the Membership Action Plan have paid off. Due to your hard work, Allies can be confident that your admission to the Alliance will strengthen NATO,” said the NATO Secretary General at the meeting.
This will be the sixth round of enlargement in the Alliance’s history. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia joined in 2004; the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in 1999; Spain in 1982; Germany in 1955 and Greece and Turkey joined the Alliance in 1952.
Allies also reaffirmed their commitment to keeping NATO’s door open to any European democracy willing and able to assume the responsibilities and obligations of membership, in accordance with Article 10 of the Washington Treaty.
NATO agreed that an invitation to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be extended as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue has been reached. They encouraged the negotiations to be resumed without delay and expect them to be concluded as soon as possible.
NATO also welcomed Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership and agreed that these countries will become members of NATO. The Membership Action Plan (MAP) is the next step for the two countries on their direct way to membership. NATO Foreign Ministers were asked to make a first assessment of progress at their December 2008 meeting.
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