ZAGREB – NATO member states’ ambassadors signed in Brussels on Thursday aprotocol on Macedonia’s accession to the alliance.Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov attended the signing.
The ratification of the accession protocol in the member states is expectedto last a year, after which Macedonia will become NATO’s 30th member.
Macedonia was blocked for years in its Euro-Atlantic integration by Greecedue to a dispute over the former’s name.Macedonia was expected to be invited to NATO at the 2008 summit inBucharest at which Croatia was invited to join.
Thanks to an agreement between Prime Ministers Zoran Zaev of Macedonia andAlexis Tsipras of Greece, a compromise solution was found under which, infuture, Macedonia will officially be called North Macedonia.
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called today’s protocol signinghistoric. From now on, Macedonia will attend allNATO meetings as an observer. – APP
