NAVO uitgebreid met twee nieuwe leden: Albanië en Kroatië (en)
EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG – Former Communist countries Albania and Croatia were formally welcomed on Saturday (4 April) as NATO's newest members. Macedonia's membership, however, is still pending due to a name dispute with Greece, while Georgia and Ukraine's accession perspectives look distant.
"You have very well earned your place at the table," outgoing NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer i told Albanian and Croatian delegations at the opening of the NATO council on Saturday morning in Strasbourg.
Mr Scheffer said that the move is testimony to the countries' long years of reforms and a proof of the "open-door policy" of NATO enlargement.
US President Barack Obama i, himself for the first time at a NATO summit, thanked the pair for sending 140 Albanian and 296 Croatian troops to Afghanistan - a considerable contribution for the two small Balkan states of 3 and 4.5 million people, respectively.
In a short ceremony, Mr Obama handed over copies of the Washington Treaty, which lays out the security guarantees of NATO, to the President of Albania, Bamir Topi and Croatian head Stjepan Mesic.
"What we bring to NATO is the wartime experience of our military, which many other armies do not have," Mr Mesic said on his way to the ceremony.
Croatia's entry comes after intense pressure on Slovenia, where some poilitical factions opposed the move due to a bilateral territorial dispute with its neighbour. All NATO states had to ratify the enlargement treaty and deposit documents in Washington, a formal step completeted on 1 April.
Created in 1949, NATO was originally designed to guard European allies of the United States against a potential Soviet attack. Article 5 of the Washington Treaty says that if any NATO member is attacked, all the others must come to its aid.
After the fall of Communism, the prospect of NATO membership drove reforms in eastern Europe. NATO accession has in the past gone hand-in-hand with EU membership - all the former Iron Curtain EU states are also NATO members, with Croatia also expected to join the EU shortly.
The NATO leaders' gathering in the top security Music Palace venue in the north of Strasbourg on Saturday saw a second day of riots in the historic city, prompting Michelle Obama and other first ladies to cancel a meeting to a cancer hospital.
Some of the protesters waved Soviet flags saying "Let's all reunite under Maoism" and "NATO = legal terrorism."
Macedonia pending
NATO leaders failed to achieve any progress on Macedonian membership, which remains pending because of the country's name dispute with Greece.
Athens is blocking Skopje's membership, insisting that the name of the former Yugoslav republic should not be "Macedonia," because it threatens the security of a Greek province also called Macedonia.
In his opening remarks to the NATO council, president Obama said he was "looking forward to Macedonia becoming a member."
NATO leaders agreed last year in Bucharest that Macedonia would be a member as soon as the name dispute is resolved. The haggle is also blocking the opening of EU accession talks with the country.
Georgia and Ukraine too hot to handle
As for the next countries in line for NATO membership, Georgia and Ukraine, leaders are expected to repeat what they said last year in Bucharest - that the two states would eventually join, once they fulfill criteria.
The membership of the two fomer Soviet states is fiercely opposed by Russia.
Mr Obama did not specifically name Georgia or Ukraine when he referred to NATO enlargement in the context of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia.
"The door remains open to new members as they meet the standards of our alliance and can make a meaningful contribution to allied security," he said.
The US is currently thawing relations with Russia, whose help it needs for transport of supplies to Afghanistan and for diplomatic support in the Iranian nuclear dispute.
"NATO will disappoint Eastern Europe if it backpedals on ...the timetable for allowing Georgia and Ukraine into the NATO membership waiting-room," Andrew Wilson, an expert on Eastern Europe with the European Council on Foreign Relations, a London-based think tank said in a press release.