Albania, Croatia begin talks for NATO membership

TIRANA, May 5 – Albania
and Croatia have formally begun
negotiations with NATO
to become the 27th and 28th
members of the transatlantic
alliance, according to the alliance.
“The accession talks cover
the political, military resources,
security and legal
commitments of NATO membership,”
said the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization in a
statement on its website.
The two, once-communist
Balkan states, were invited to
open negotiations at a summit
of NATO leaders in Bucharest
at the start of April.
During a visit to Albania,
Croatian Speaker Luka Bebic
invited his Albanian counterpart
to both write a letter to all
NATO member countries urging
them to soon ratify the
membership invitation.
Once talks are completed,
Tirana and Zagreb will be
ready to sign a membership
protocol, considered a stepping
stone that NATO has
penciled in for July 9.
Ratification by the two applicant
countries, plus all 26
current NATO members,
would follow.
If all goes as planned, Albania
and Croatia should be
able to participate as fullfledged
allies at NATO’s 60th
anniversary summit. The summit
will be held in April next
year in the neighboring cities
of Strasbourg, France and
Kehl, Germany.
Hopes for Georgia and
Ukraine to open talks were
dashed at the Bucharest summit
when NATO leaders, facing
strong opposition from
Moscow, offered only a vague
pledge of eventual membership
to the two former Soviet
republics. (Tirana Times Staff)