"MAP has been granted to Bosnia-Herzegovina today, but with clear conditions attached on implementation," spokesman James Appathurai told the press after talks among NATO foreign ministers in the Estonian capital Tallinn.Mr Appathurai said NATO would accept Bosnia's first annual reform plan under the program, only when defence property, such as bases, was registered as belonging to the state and for use of the defence ministry.
Later that night, the Alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrote on his Facebook page that “NATO foreign ministers made an important decision to invite Bosnia and Herzegovina to join Membership Action Plan, but made clear that there are still important reform issues that need to be solved."
"All Balkan countries should have the prospect of integration into the Euro-Atlantic community," he added.
This latest move to enlarge the 28-member alliance is sure to hit a nerve in Moscow, where the military body was perceived an aggressor during the Yugoslav war.
Enlargement of NATO was considered a threat to national security in the new Russian military doctrine put forward in February by President Dmitri Medvedev, although this comment referred more to Ukraine and Georgia, who are Russia's immediate neighbours, than the Balkan countries whom Russia views as within its ‘sphere of influence’.
Both Ukraine and Georgia applied to be accepted for a Membership Action Plan in 2008, but NATO member states hesitated in granting it to them, presumably amid staunch opposition from Russia. (The MAP for these two countries now seems to have been postponed indefinitely, although they have been promised that they will join eventually…)
A Membership Action Plan is a multi-stage process of political dialogue and military reform to bring a country in line with NATO standards and to eventual membership, and the process can take several years.
Bosnia applied for the membership plan in October last year, but the alliance declined this in December on the grounds it still needed to carry out more reforms. But last night, it was noted that since December Bosnia had made "significant" progress on reform and NATO members had welcomed its decision to destroy surplus ammunition and arms and to contribute troops to the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
Bosnia agreed this month to send an infantry unit to join the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan - one of the conditions NATO placed on Bosnia's application. "They remain concerned, however, that the defence property issue is not yet resolved," Mr Appathurai said.
But Bosnia is still lagging behind its Balkan neighbours, all former republics of Yugoslavia, in progress toward EU and NATO membership. Croatia joined NATO along with Albania last year and Montenegro was granted a membership plan in December.
Both Ukraine and Georgia applied to be accepted for a Membership Action Plan in 2008, but NATO member states hesitated in granting it to them, presumably amid staunch opposition from Russia. (The MAP for these two countries now seems to have been postponed indefinitely, although they have been promised that they will join eventually…)
A Membership Action Plan is a multi-stage process of political dialogue and military reform to bring a country in line with NATO standards and to eventual membership, and the process can take several years.Bosnia applied for the membership plan in October last year, but the alliance declined this in December on the grounds it still needed to carry out more reforms. But last night, it was noted that since December Bosnia had made "significant" progress on reform and NATO members had welcomed its decision to destroy surplus ammunition and arms and to contribute troops to the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
Bosnia agreed this month to send an infantry unit to join the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan - one of the conditions NATO placed on Bosnia's application. "They remain concerned, however, that the defence property issue is not yet resolved," Mr Appathurai said.
But Bosnia is still lagging behind its Balkan neighbours, all former republics of Yugoslavia, in progress toward EU and NATO membership. Croatia joined NATO along with Albania last year and Montenegro was granted a membership plan in December.
