NATO says membership bids will be judged on own merits

BRUSSELS, Dec. 7 – NATO assured each country seeking to join the alliance that it would be judged on its own merits early next year and would not be tied to the membership bids of other countries.
Albania, Croatia and Macedonia hope to join NATO next year and have signed a U.S.-backed initiative, known as the Adriatic 3 Charter, to plot a common military strategy.
Albania, a small, predominantly Muslim nation on the Adriatic, has sent small troop contingents to join multinational forces in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Tirana is also considering sending a small force to Lebanon.
“There is no packaging as far as nations are concerned,” said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. “It’s based on the performance of every individual nation.”
NATO says no decision will be taken until next year, but officials say Croatia’s preparations are running ahead of the other two Balkan nations.
“We see Croatia making considerable progress,” de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after a meeting with President Stipe Mesic at NATO headquarters. However, he cautioned that Croatia needed to continue to prepare its military for entry into the Western alliance.
“There is no guarantee for invitations at the NATO summit in Bucharest.”