BUCHAREST, April 3 – NATO decided, Thursday, to take in two new members, Albania and Croatia, while leaving out Macedonia following its riff with Greece over an unresolved dispute over its name.
NATO and Albania signed the Membership Action Plan in 1999, which is the open door policy followed by the alliance for any country wishing to become a member.
Through that plan, NATO offers advice and other assistance to the candidate country, though NATO closely follows all other developments in the country, besides military concerns.
The membership plan also seeks to include the country into joint military exercises and operations.
Since 2002, NATO has an office in Tirana.
Albania immediately asked for membership after the fall of the communist regime in 1990.
Albania has played an important part, though not directly participating with troops or military equipment, during the last decade’s wars in the former Yugoslavia’s territory and, especially, during the war in Kosova.
Albania has repeatedly been commended for its moderating role in the Balkans.
Albania has military units in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq and has also offered to provide additional forces for Darfur and Lebanon.
The Albanian army has also been undergoing deep reforms to become a totally professional army by 2010 with some 14,500 troops.
Five years ago, in 2003, along with Croatia and Macedonia, Albania signed the Adriatic 3 Charter, a pre-membership deal supported by Washington and serving to coordinate their efforts and also push domestic reforms.
Albania has been one of the first to sign the Partnership for Peace agreement with NATO.
NATO summit
Besides inviting a few new members into the alliance, the NATO summit in Bucharest had other priorities on its agenda.
Among concerns is establishing a strategy seeking to integrate Russia into a global defense partnership that would, among other things, make possible the installment of an anti-missile system able to protect the whole of Europe against attacks coming from the Asiatic East. Other issues included the conflict in Afghanistan and bringing Kosova back into international legality and order by offering reparations for Serbia and defining a geopolitical balance system in the Western Balkans.
At NATO’s last summit in Riga in 2006, alliance leaders sent Albania, Croatia and Macedonia a ‘clear signal’ that they would be invited into the organization during the Bucharest summit if they met NATO standards. That hope came true Wednesday night for Albania and Croatia. But Macedonia’s dream turned into a nightmare as Greece made good on a threat to block the former Yugoslav republic’s application for membership until the long-running name dispute could be resolved.
NATO has made expansion into the Western Balkans one of its top priorities. The alliance conducted its first major military campaign in the region nearly ten years ago, and continues to have a sizeable peacekeeping operation in Kosova and, consequently, views NATO membership as a means of stabilizing that part of South-East Europe.
The question of expansion into the former Soviet Union also raised the diplomatic temperature Wednesday, with NATO members torn between strengthening their relationship with Ukraine and Georgia and damaging an already fractious dialogue with Russia.
The three-day event, starting Wednesday in the opulent marble-lined palace built by communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, was the last NATO summit for U.S. President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Bush has been pushing allied leaders to put Ukraine and Georgia on track to join NATO, a development fiercely opposed by Russia, which warns that expanding the alliance into its former-Soviet neighbors could trigger a new East-West crisis.
Bush will also step up calls for European allies to increase their contributions to the 47,000-strong NATO force in Afghanistan.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy responded by confirming the deployment of 1,000 French troops, in addition to the 1,400 already there.
The U.S. is the largest contributor to the NATO force with 19,000 troops. It also has 14,000 soldiers outside NATO conducting counterinsurgency operations and training the Afghan army.
But NATO’s latest security worries go far beyond Taliban fighters or al-Qaida extremists: They include computer hackers, threats to global energy supplies and climate change profiteers.
NATO-Albania chronology
TIRANA – The following is a chronology of the NATO-Albania ties prior to Albania receiving its membership invitation Thursday:
1992 – Albania joins the Northern Atlantic Cooperation Council, renamed Euro-Atlantic Partnerity Council, in 1997.
1994 – Albania signs the Partnership for Peace (PfP).
1996 – Albanian army troops join NATO forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
1999 – NATO sets up a logistic base in Tirana to support operations in Kosova.
2000 – Albania organizes Adventure Express joint military exercise in April and the other Cooperative Dragon in June.
2001 – Albania holds the preparatory stage of the PfP Adventure Express 01 exercise.
2002 – NATO opens office in Tirana to assist Albania’s reform and also assist KFOR in Kosova.
2003 – Albania signs the Adriatic 3 Charter with Croatia and Macedonia, supported by the United States.
Albanian military unit joins NATO troops in Afghanistan (ISAF).
2005 – Albania assists in a joint medical military unit for Afghanistan.
Albania takes part in the joint military exercise, Cooperative Engagement 05.
2007 – Albania holds meeting with NATO’s advising council on its progress of reforms.
Albania holds the Cooperative Longbow 07 and Cooperative Lancer 07 joint military exercises.
