Thursday, 25 March 2010
NATO hopes that Macedonia will be the 29th Member of the Alliance
NATO opinion is unchanged- the Republic of Macedonia will receive an invitation for membership immediately after the name issue with Greece is solved. This is the only obstacle for the full-fledged membership of Macedonia in NATO.
This was reaffirmed on today’s meeting of the NATO expert team, headed by Mr. Stefan Elgersma, Head Officer on the Republic of Macedonia File with the Coordinators of the MP Groups in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia: Ms. Silvana Boneva, Ms. Cvetanka Ivanova, Ms. Flora Kadriu, Mr. Stojan Andov as well as Mr. Ljubisav Ivanov- Dzingo, Mr. Kenan Hasipi and Mr. Avdija Pepik as representatives from the other political parties in the Assembly.
The Annual National Program for of the Republic of Macedonia Membership in NATO for 2009/2010 presents the key goals and priorities of the country for this period. This program is a reflection of the determination and promotion of our national reforms, aiming to strengthen the political, economic, defence and security standards of the country in accordance with the NATO Standards.
The NATO Expert team expressed interest for the reforms in order to be able to prepare progress report in the framework of the Program.
Macedonian MPs informed the guest on the Macedonian efforts on the way towards EU and underlined that membership in NATO and EU is a strategic goal of the country.
Mr. Elgersma underlined that NATO will constantly follow the development of Macedonia and encouraged both sides to be constructive in the solution of the name issue. He expressed his hope that Macedonia will become the 29th Member of the NATO Alliance in near future.