North Macedonia–NATO relations
Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty on the Accession of the Republic of North Macedonia[1] | |
---|---|
Type | Accession treaty |
Signed | February 6, 2019 |
Location | Brussels |
Effective | not in force |
Condition | Entry into force of the accession treaty after ratification by all current NATO members. Membership of North Macedonia starts after deposit of its instrument of accession after the treaty has entered into force. |
Ratifiers | 22 / 29 [2][3][4]
|
Depositary | United States |
Languages | English and French |
North Macedonia portal |
North Macedonia is currently in the process of acceding to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a member state. In 1995, the country joined the Partnership for Peace. It then began taking part in various NATO missions, including the International Security Assistance Force and the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. At the 2008 Bucharest summit, Greece vetoed the country's invitation to join; however, NATO member states agreed that the country would receive an invitation upon resolution of the Macedonia naming dispute.[5] Following an agreement in June 2018 to rename the country, the permanent representatives to NATO of the member states signed a protocol on the accession of North Macedonia to NATO on 6 February 2019.[6] All member states need to ratify before it enters into force. 22 of the 29 NATO member states have ratified it so far.
History
The then Republic of Macedonia joined the Partnership for Peace in 1995, and commenced its Membership Action Plan in 1999 at the Washington Summit, at the same time as eight other countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia).
At the 2008 Bucharest summit, Greece vetoed the Republic of Macedonia's invitation to join, however, NATO nations agreed that the country would receive an invitation upon resolution of the Macedonia naming dispute.[5] Greece felt that its neighbor's constitutional name implies territorial aspirations against its own region of Macedonia. After the veto, Greece was sued in the International Court of Justice, over the use of "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" as an acceptable option with which to enter NATO, while Greece counterargued that it was a collective decision of NATO not to invite the Republic of Macedonia, and therefore the interim accord signed between the two countries was not violated. Greece also considered blocking the Republic of Macedonia's accession to the European Union over the naming dispute.[7] Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the Republic of Macedonia and Greece to find an "acceptable solution" to the dispute, so that the Republic of Macedonia would be free to join NATO.[8] In 2014, prior to the 65th anniversary of its founding, NATO announced that it would not be offering any new countries membership in the organization that year. Some analysts, such as Jorge Benitez of the Atlantic Council think tank, argued that this reluctance was partly due to the new security climate after Russia's annexation of Crimea.[9] There has been continued debate about how Russia will view the republic's accession.[10]
Following an agreement in June 2018 to rename the country the Republic of North Macedonia, NATO agreed to consider extending an invitation to the country to join at its summit on 11–12 July.[11] On 11 July 2018, NATO invited the republic to begin membership talks, saying the country could join the organization once the naming issue was resolved.[12] Formal accession talks began on 18 October 2018.[13] On February 6, 2019, the permanent representatives to NATO of the member states signed a protocol on the accession of North Macedonia to NATO.[6]
North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, in Skopje on 3 June 2019, said that he expected the ratification process to be finalized by the end of October.[14] However, as of November the accession protocol has not been finalised, though NATO reassured North Macedonia that the ratification process is "well on track".[15] North Macedonia is all but certain to join NATO in December 2019 or January 2020, with the alliance publicly reassuring the country its accession would go ahead.[16]
Negotiation progress
Event | Date |
---|---|
Partnership for Peace | November 15, 1995[17] |
Membership Action Plan | April 19, 1999[18] |
Invitation to join | July 11, 2018[19] |
Accession protocol | February 6, 2019[6] |
Full membership | TBD |
Ratification process
Signatory | Date | Institution | AB | Deposited[20][3][21][22] | Reference | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Albania | 14 February 2019 | Parliament | 140 | 0 | 0 | 1 April 2019 | [23] |
20 February 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [24] | ||||
Belgium | 25 April 2019 | Chamber of Representatives | 131 | 2 | 2 | 6 June 2019 | [25] |
17 May 2019 | Royal Assent | Granted | [26] | ||||
Bulgaria | 20 February 2019 | National Assembly | 140 | 0 | 0 | 18 March 2019 | [27] |
23 February 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [28] | ||||
Canada | 19 June 2019 | House of Commons | Passed | 19 June 2019 | [29] | ||
Croatia | 1 March 2019 | Parliament | 116 | 2 | 0 | 22 May 2019 | [30] |
6 March 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [31] | ||||
Czech Republic | 12 June 2019 | Senate | 52 | 0 | 13 | 25 October 2019 | [32] |
12 September 2019 | Chamber of Deputies | 124 | 8 | 16 | [33] | ||
8 October 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [34] | ||||
Denmark | 26 March 2019 | Folketing | 97 | 0 | 9 | 12 April 2019 | [35] |
Estonia | 12 June 2019 | Riigikogu | 76 | 0 | 17 | 18 July 2019 | [36] |
17 June 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [37] | ||||
France | 17 October 2019 | Senate | Passed | [38] | |||
21 November 2019 | National Assembly | Passed | [39] | ||||
Presidential Assent | |||||||
Germany | 6 June 2019 | Bundestag | 545 | 160 | 4 | 21 August 2019 | [40] |
28 June 2019 | Bundesrat | Passed | [41] | ||||
4 July 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [42] | ||||
Greece | 8 February 2019 | Parliament | 153 | 140 | 1 | 21 February 2019 | [43] |
15 February 2019 | Presidential Promulgation | Granted | [44] | ||||
Hungary | 25 June 2019 | National Assembly | 153 | 0 | 0 | 24 July 2019 | [45] |
27 June 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [46] | ||||
Iceland | 24 October 2019 | Althing | 32 | 0 | 11 | [47] | |
Presidential Assent | |||||||
Italy | 25 June 2019 | Chamber of Deputies | 442 | 0 | 1 | [48] | |
16 October 2019 | Senate | 237 | 0 | 2 | [49] | ||
24 October 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [50] | ||||
Latvia | 16 May 2019 | Saeima | 81 | 0 | 0 | 4 June 2019 | [51] |
22 May 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [52] | ||||
Lithuania | 14 March 2019 | Seimas | 92 | 0 | 0 | 30 May 2019 | [53] |
20 March 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [54] | ||||
Luxembourg | 2 July 2019 | Chamber of Deputies | 58 | 2 | 0 | 25 July 2019 | [55] |
12 July 2019 | Grand Ducal Promulgation | Granted | [56] | ||||
Montenegro | 1 March 2019 | Parliament | 44 | 0 | 0 | 18 April 2019 | [57] |
4 March 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [58] | ||||
Netherlands | 4 July 2019 | House of Representatives | 129 | 21 | 0 | [59] | |
12 November 2019 | Senate | 59 | 16 | 0 | [60] | ||
Royal Promulgation | |||||||
Norway | 5 June 2019 | Storting | 96 | 1 | 0 | 19 July 2019 | [61] |
14 June 2019 | Royal Assent | Granted | [62] | ||||
Poland | 4 April 2019 | Sejm | 388 | 1 | 2 | 1 July 2019 | [63] |
11 April 2019 | Senate | 59 | 0 | 0 | [64] | ||
25 April 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [65] | ||||
Portugal | 15 May 2019 | National Assembly | 193 | 36 | 1 | 8 October 2019 | [66] |
7 August 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [67] | ||||
Romania | 27 February 2019 | Chamber of Deputies | 273 | 0 | 0 | 18 July 2019 | [68] |
13 March 2019 | Senate | 96 | 0 | 0 | [69] | ||
18 March 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [70] | ||||
Slovakia | 4 April 2019 | National Council | 111 | 13 | 1 | 22 May 2019 | [71] |
24 April 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [72] | ||||
Slovenia | 12 February 2019 | National Assembly | 72 | 12 | 0 | 22 March 2019 | [73] |
20 February 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [74] | ||||
Spain | Congress of Deputies | ||||||
Senate | |||||||
Royal Assent | |||||||
Turkey | 11 July 2019 | National Assembly | 255 | 7 | 1 | [75] | |
24 July 2019 | Presidential Assent | Granted | [76] | ||||
United Kingdom | 16 October 2019 | House of Commons | Passed | 24 October 2019 | [77] | ||
United States | 22 October 2019 | Senate | 91 | 2 | 0 | [78][79] | |
Presidential Assent | 26 November |
Public opinion
During the Kosovo War of 1999, the Macedonian government maintained a pro-NATO position.[80] A majority of the population of the Republic of Macedonia criticized the government stance and opposed NATO intervention in Kosovo due to fears over irredentism from ethnic Albanian Macedonians, the unstable economy, disruption of trade brought about by war, and Slavic solidarity with Serbs.[81] Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski stated during the war that anti-NATO sentiment was the "second biggest threat" to the country after the arrival of Albanian refugees from Kosovo.[82] The country's Albanian population supported NATO and its intervention to assist the Albanians of Kosovo.[80]
In 2008, a poll following the NATO summit showed that 82.5% of ethnic Macedonian citizens opposed changing their country's constitutional name in order to join NATO.[83] NATO membership in general in 2008 was supported by 85.2% of the population.[84] Elections were called following the 2008 summit, resulting in further support for the center-right pro-NATO party, VMRO-DPMNE. The elections were marred by violence that attracted criticism from NATO members.[85]
In a statewide 2010 survey, 80.02% of respondents said they would vote for the Republic of Macedonia to become part of NATO if a referendum on accession were to take place.[86] In another survey, some 65% of ethnic Macedonians expressed that they opposed a name change of the state as being the price for NATO membership.[86]
In a 2016 poll, some 68% of ethnic Macedonians supported joining NATO, possibly under the FYROM name.[87]
Albanians of North Macedonia harbour strongly pro-NATO sentiments.[88]
See also
- Accession of North Macedonia to the European Union
- Foreign relations of North Macedonia
- Macedonia naming dispute
- Enlargement of NATO
References
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{{cite book}}
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(help) - ^ "Macedonians Won't Give Up Name for NATO". Angus Reid Global Monitor. 2008-03-13. Archived from the original on 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
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{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
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