BRUSSELS, July 10 – Albania, Croatia and Macedonia may be allowed to join NATO at the alliance’s summit next year in Bucharest, a NATO spokesman has told Chinese journalists. The spokesman also stressed that the three countries must still undergo major reforms and that there was no guarantee of becoming members.
“They are all hopeful, they are all equally hopeful (to get invited),” James Appathurai told a group of Xinhua journalists.
But he added that there is no guarantee that any of them would receive invitation, nor guarantee that all of them would become members unless with ongoing reforms.
“These countries are at various levels of meeting the NATO standards — political, economic, democratic, and military standards,” he said.
Croatia, he said, has clearly made enormous progress and there are no substantial challenges left in its bid to become a NATO member.
While Albania, Croatia and Macedonia are ‘walking their last mile’ toward NATO, Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia have just joined the Partnership for Peace program, the initial stage on their way toward NATO membership
