NATO/Albanien/Kroatien

NATO Allies Sign Acces­sion Pro­to­cols for Alba­nia and Croa­t­ia

Allies signed today the Acces­sion Pro­to­cols with Alba­nia and Croa­t­ia, open­ing the way for the full NATO mem­ber­ship of these two coun­tries. The Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs of Alba­nia, H.E. Mr. Lulz­im Basha and the Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs of Croa­t­ia, H.E. Mr. Gor­dan Jan­droković par­tic­i­pat­ed in the cer­e­mo­ny in the NATO Headquarters. 

Dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny, NATO Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Jaap de Hoop Schef­fer said: “This is an his­tor­i­cal achieve­ment for these two coun­tries and for the entire Atlantic com­mu­ni­ty of nations. Both our new Allies come from a region that, not long ago saw the first oper­a­tional deploy­ment of the Alliance and a region that has wit­nessed the first major con­flict on Euro­pean soil since the end of World War Two. ” 

Fol­low­ing the sig­na­ture, each of the NATO coun­tries’ Par­lia­ments will begin the rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the Acces­sion Pro­to­cols. As soon as the process is com­plet­ed with­in the coun­tries that are already mem­bers of the Alliance, Alba­nia and Croa­t­ia will be invit­ed to rat­i­fy the acces­sion in their own Parliaments. 

There­after, the instru­ments of rat­i­fi­ca­tion will be deposit­ed at the State Depart­ment in Wash­ing­ton — the depos­i­to­ry of Wash­ing­ton Treaty – and Alba­nia and Croa­t­ia become full mem­bers of the Alliance. 

As of today, and through­out the peri­od lead­ing up to full acces­sion, NATO will involve the invit­ed coun­tries in Alliance activ­i­ties to the great­est pos­si­ble extent and will con­tin­ue to pro­vide sup­port and assis­tance to their reform efforts, includ­ing through the Mem­ber­ship Action Plan (MAP).

Quelle: NATO