SKOPJE (Macedonia), September 6 (SeeNews) – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is ready to welcome Macedonia as its 30th member state, the secretary general of the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Thursday.
“You decide your own future; that's only for you to decide… what I can say is that NATO is ready to have you as the 30th member of the alliance,” Stoltenberg said in a press release, following a two-day visit to Macedonia to discuss progress on the country’s path to NATO membership, ahead of a referendum on the name deal with Greece to be held on September 30.
“The visit demonstrates NATO’s commitment and support to Skopje’s accession, and is the secretary general’s second visit to the capital this year,” the statement reads.
At their Brussels summit in July, NATO leaders decided to invite the government in Skopje to begin accession talks with the alliance, following the signing of an agreement between Macedonia and Greece to resolve the 27-year old dispute between the two neighours by changing the name of the former Yugoslav republic to North Macedonia.
“We agreed to invite the government of Skopje to start accession talks. Once all national procedures have been completed to finalise the name agreement, the country will join NATO as our thirtieth member,” Stoltenberg said at the time.
On July 30, Macedonia's parliament decided to hold a referendum on September 30 on the name deal with Greece.
The agreement was signed on June 17 by the foreign ministers of Macedonia and Greece, Nikola Dimitrov and Nikos Kotzias, paving the way for the former Yugoslav republic to join NATO and the European Union under its new name of North Macedonia. Greece had blocked Macedonia’s attempts to join NATO and the EU, saying the country's present name implied territorial clams to the Greek northernmost province of the same name.