This article is about the historical and future expansion of NATO. For the composition of NATO, see Member states of NATO.
Map of NATO countries' chronological membership
Enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the process of including new member states in NATO. NATO is a military alliance of twenty-seven European and two North American countries that constitutes a system of collective defense. The process of joining the alliance is governed by Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which allows only for the invitation of "other European States", and by subsequent agreements. Countries wishing to join have to meet certain requirements and complete a multi-step process involving political dialogue and military integration. The accession process is overseen by the North Atlantic Council, NATO's governing body.
As of 2019, NATO officially recognizes four aspiring members: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia and Ukraine. North Macedonia signed an accession protocol to become a NATO member state in February 2019, which is undergoing ratification by the member states. Future expansion is currently a topic of debate in several countries outside the alliance, and countries like Sweden, Finland, and Serbia have open political debate on the topic of membership, while in countries like Ukraine, support and opposition to membership is tied to ethnic and nationalist ideologies. The incorporation of countries formerly part of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union has been a cause of increased tension between NATO countries and Russia.
The Bonn–Paris conventions ended the allies’ occupation of West Germany, and were ratified in part on the condition that West Germany join NATO, which it did in 1955.[2] Though initially isolationist, Spain under Francisco Franco was staunchly anti-Communist, and bound by regular defence agreements with NATO countries.[3] After its transition to democracy, Spain came under pressure to normalize its European relations, including joining NATO, which it did in 1982. A referendum in 1986 confirmed popular support for this.[4]
The first post-Cold War expansion of NATO came with German reunification on 3 October 1990, when the former East Germany became part of the Federal Republic of Germany and the alliance. This had been agreed in the Two Plus Four Treaty earlier in the year. To secure Soviet approval of a united Germany remaining in NATO, it was agreed that foreign troops and nuclear weapons would not be stationed in the former East Germany, and the topic of further NATO expansion east was raised.[5]
There is no mention of NATO enlargement in the September–October 1990 agreements on German reunification, so there was no formal commitment not to expand.[6][7] Whether or not the West informally committed to not enlarge NATO to the East is a matter of dispute among historians and international relations scholars.[6] Harvard University historian Mark Kramer rejects that an informal agreement existed,[6][8] whereas Texas A&M University political scientist Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson argues that an informal agreement existed.[6][7] In December 2017, Svetlana Savranskaya and Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive at George Washington University argued that newly declassified documents showed that an informal agreement existed.[9][10]
Jack Matlock, US ambassador to the Soviet Union during its final years, said that the West gave a "clear commitment" not to expand, and declassified documents indicate that Soviet negotiators were given the oral impression by diplomats like Hans-Dietrich Genscher and James Baker that NATO membership was off the table for countries such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, or Poland.[11][7] In 1996, Gorbachev wrote in his Memoirs, that "during the negotiations on the unification of Germany they gave assurances that NATO would not extend its zone of operation to the east,"[12] and repeated this view in an interview in 2008.[13] However, in 2014, Gorbachev said "The topic of 'NATO expansion' was not discussed at all [in 1990], and it wasn't brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility. Western leaders didn't bring it up, either."[6][14] Eduard Shevardnadze, foreign minister of the Soviet Union between 1985 and 1991, has always maintained that "NATO's expansion beyond German borders never came up for negotiation."[6] According to Robert Zoellick, a State Department official involved in the Two Plus Four negotiating process, no formal commitment regarding enlargement was made.[15]
NATO added three new members at the 1999 Washington summit, and established the protocol for Membership Action Plans.
In February 1991, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia (as Czechoslovakia) formed the Visegrád Group to push for European integration under the European Union and NATO, as well as to conduct military reforms in line with NATO standards. Internal NATO reaction to these former Warsaw Pact countries was initially negative, but by the 1991 Rome summit in November, members agreed to a series of goals that could lead to accession, such as market and democratic liberalization, and that NATO should be a partner in these efforts. In subsequent years, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its eastern neighbors were set up, including the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (later the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council) and the Partnership for Peace.[16]
While the other Visegrád members were invited to join NATO at its 1997 Madrid summit, Slovakia was excluded based on what several members considered undemocratic actions by nationalist Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar.[17]Romania and Slovenia were both considered for invitation in 1997, and each had the backing of a prominent NATO member, France and Italy respectively, but support for enlargement was not unanimous, particularly in the US Congress.[18] In an open letter to US President Bill Clinton, more than forty foreign policy experts including Bill Bradley, Sam Nunn, Gary Hart, Paul Nitze, and Robert McNamara expressed their concerns about NATO expansion as both expensive and unnecessary given the lack of an external threat from Russia at that time.[19]
A 2006 study in the journal Security Studies argued that the NATO enlargements in 1999 and 2004 contributed to democratic consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe.[20]
Flags of NATO, Bulgaria, European Union at the Military club of Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Domestic politics in Eastern European countries continued to push for more enlargement, and political parties reluctant to move on NATO membership, such as the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Slovak HZDS, were voted out of office.[21] Hungary's interest in joining was confirmed by a November 1997 referendum that returned 85.3 percent in favor of membership.[22] Russia's actions in the First Chechen War were also a motivating factor for several countries that had memories of similar Soviet offensives.[23]
At the 1999 Washington summit, where Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic officially joined, NATO also issued new guidelines for membership with individualized "Membership Action Plans" for Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.[24] In May 2000, these countries joined with Croatia to form the Vilnius Group in order to cooperate and lobby for common NATO membership, and by the 2002 Prague summit seven were invited for membership, which took place at the 2004 Istanbul summit.[25] Russia was particularly upset with the addition of the three Baltic states, the first countries that were part of the Soviet Union to join NATO.[26][25]
Croatia also started a Membership Action Plan at the 2002 summit, leading to a national debate on whether a referendum on NATO membership needed to be held there. Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader ultimately agreed in January 2008, as part of forming a coalition government with the HSS and HSLS parties, not to officially propose one.[27]Montenegro declared independence on 3 June 2006, and the new country subsequently joined the Partnership for Peace programme at the 2006 Riga summit. Albania and Croatia were invited to join NATO at the 2008 Bucharest summit that April, though Slovenia threatened to hold up Croatian membership over their border dispute in the Bay of Piran.[28] Slovenia did ratify Croatia's accession protocol in February 2009,[29] and Croatia and Albania both officially joined NATO just prior to the 2009 Strasbourg–Kehl summit, with little opposition from Russia.[30]
Montenegro applied for a Membership Action Plan on 5 November 2008,[31] which was granted in December 2009.[32] Montenegro also began full membership with the Adriatic Charter of NATO aspirants in May 2009.[33][34] On December 2, 2015, NATO formally invited Montenegro to join the alliance,[35] with negotiations concluding in May 2016.[36] Montenegro formally joined NATO on 5 June 2017.[37]
The North Atlantic Treaty is the basis of the organization and as such, any changes including new membership requires ratification by all current signers of the treaty. The treaty's Article 10 describes how non-member states may join NATO, and outlines NATO's "open door" policy:
The Parties may by unanimous agreement, invite any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area to accede to this Treaty. Any State so invited may become a Party to the Treaty by depositing its instrument of accession with the Government of the United States of America. The Government of the United States of America will inform each of the Parties of the deposit of each such instrument of accession.[38]
This article poses two general limits to non-member states. First, only European states are eligible for new membership, and second, these states not only need the approval of all the existing member states, but every member state can put some criteria forward that have to be attained. In practice, NATO formulates a common set of criteria, but for instance Greece blocked the Republic of Macedonia's accession to NATO for many years due to the disagreement over the use of the name Macedonia. Turkey similarly opposes the participation of the Republic of Cyprus with NATO institutions as long as the Cyprus dispute is not resolved.[39]
Since the 1991 Rome summit, when the delegations of its member states officially offered cooperation with Europe's newly democratic states, NATO has addressed and further defined the expectations and procedure for adding new members. The 1994 Brussels Declaration reaffirmed the principles in Article 10 and led to the "Study on NATO Enlargement". Published in September 1995, the study outlined the "how and why" of possible enlargement in Europe,[40] highlighting three principles from the 1949 treaty for members to have: "democracy, individual liberty, and rule of law".[41]
As NATO Secretary General Willy Claes noted, the 1995 study did not specify the "who or when,"[42] though it discussed how the then newly formed Partnership for Peace and North Atlantic Cooperation Council could assist in the enlargement process,[43] and noted that on-going territorial disputes could be an issue for whether a country was invited.[44] At the 1997 Madrid summit, the heads of state of NATO issued the "Madrid Declaration on Euro-Atlantic Security and Cooperation" which invited three Eastern European countries to join the alliance, out of the twelve that had at that point requested to join, laying out a path for others to follow.[40]
The biggest step in the formalization of the process for inviting new members came at the 1999 Washington summit when the Membership Action Plan (MAP) mechanism was approved as a stage for the current members to regularly review the formal applications of aspiring members. A country's participation in MAP entails the annual presentation of reports concerning its progress on five different measures:[45]
Willingness to settle international, ethnic or external territorial disputes by peaceful means, commitment to the rule of law and human rights, and democratic control of armed forces
Ability to contribute to the organization's defence and missions
Devotion of sufficient resources to armed forces to be able to meet the commitments of membership
Security of sensitive information, and safeguards ensuring it
Compatibility of domestic legislation with NATO cooperation
NATO provides feedback as well as technical advice to each country and evaluates its progress on an individual basis.[46] Once a country is agreed to meet the requirements, NATO can issue that country an invitation to begin accession talks.[47] Currently, two countries have a Membership Action Plan: Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia.[48][needs update] Former MAP participants were Albania and Croatia between May 2002 and April 2009, and Montenegro between December 2009 and June 2017, when they joined NATO. The final accession process, once invited, involves five steps leading up to the signing of the accession protocols and the acceptance and ratification of those protocols by the governments of the current NATO members.[49]
Intensified Dialogue was first introduced in April 2005 at an informal meeting of foreign ministers in Vilnius, Lithuania, as a response to Ukrainian aspirations for NATO membership and related reforms taking place under President Viktor Yushchenko, and which followed the 2002 signing of the NATO–Ukraine Action Plan under his predecessor, Leonid Kuchma.[46] This formula, which includes discussion of a "full range of political, military, financial and security issues relating to possible NATO membership" had its roots in the 1997 Madrid summit, where the participants had agreed "to continue the Alliance's intensified dialogues with those nations that aspire to NATO membership or that otherwise with to pursue a dialogue with NATO on membership questions".[50]
In September 2006, Georgia became the second to be offered the Intensified Dialogue status, following a rapid change in foreign policy under President Mikhail Saakashvili,[51] and what they perceived as a demonstration of military readiness during the 2006 Kodori crisis.[52]Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia similarly received offers at the April 2008 Bucharest summit.[53] While their neighbors both requested and accepted the dialogue programme, Serbia's offer was presented to guarantee the possibility of future ties with the alliance.[54]
North Macedonia signed an accession protocol to NATO on 6 February 2019. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only other country with a Membership Action Plan, which together with Georgia, were named NATO "aspirant countries" at the North Atlantic Council meeting on 7 December 2011.[55] Ukraine was recognized as an aspirant country after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution.
^Originally invited to join the MAP in April 2010 under the condition that no Annual National Programme would be launched until one of the conditions for the OHR closure – the transfer of control of immovable defence property to the central Bosnian authorities from the two regional political entities – was fulfilled.[63] Condition waived in 2018.
^NATO–Ukraine Action Plan adopted on 22 November 2002.[65]
Bosnia and Herzegovina began further cooperation with NATO within their Individual Partnership Action Plan in January 2008.[60] The country then started the process of Intensified Dialogue at the 2008 Bucharest summit.[61] The country was invited to join the Adriatic Charter of NATO aspirants in September 2008.[68]
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina within Bosnia and Herzegovina has expressed willingness to join NATO, however, it faces consistent political pressure from Republika Srpska, the other political entity in the country, alongside its partners in Russia. On 2 October 2009, Haris Silajdžić, the Bosniak Member of the Presidency, announced official application for Membership Action Plan. On 22 April 2010, NATO agreed to launch the Membership Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but with certain conditions attached.[63] Turkey is thought to be the biggest supporter of Bosnian membership, and heavily influenced the decision.[69]
The conditions of the MAP, however, stipulated that no Annual National Programme could be launched until 63 military facilities are transferred from Bosnia's political divisions to the central government, which is one of the conditions for the OHR closure.[70][71] The leadership of the Republika Srpska has opposed this transfer as a loss of autonomy.[72] All movable property, including all weapons and other army equipment, is fully registered as the property of the country starting 1 January 2006.[73] A ruling of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 6 August 2017 decided that a disputed military facility in Han Pijesak is to be registered as property of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is expected to be a precedent for all other similar facilities, and could thus be the final factor that will enable the activation of the MAP for Bosnia.[74] Despite that all immovable property is not fully registered, NATO approved the activation of the Membership Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and called on Bosnia to submit an Annual National Program on 5 December 2018.[75]
An August 2010 poll showed that 70 percent of the country supports NATO membership, but results were very different in the two constituent entities. While 90 percent of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina supported NATO membership, only 33 percent in Republika Srpska did.[76]
Bosnia's chances of joining NATO may depend on Serbia's attitude towards the alliance, since the leadership of Republika Srpska might be reluctant to go against Serbian interests.[77] In October 2017, the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska passed a nonbinding resolution opposing NATO membership for Bosnia and Herzegovina.[78]
An August 2009 sign in downtown Tbilisi promoting eventual integration with NATO
Georgia moved quickly following the Rose Revolution in 2003 to seek closer ties with NATO. Georgia's northern neighbor, Russia, opposed the closer ties, including those expressed at the 2008 Bucharest summit where NATO members promised that Georgia would eventually join the organization.[79]
Complications in the relationship between NATO and Georgia includes presence of Russian forces in internationally recognized Georgian territory as a result of multiple recent conflicts, like the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, over the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are home to a large number of citizens of the Russian Federation. On 21 November 2011, Russian PresidentDmitry Medvedev while addressing soldiers in Vladikavkaz near the Georgian border stated that the 2008 invasion had prevented any further NATO enlargement into the former Soviet sphere.[79]
A nonbinding referendum in 2008 resulted in 72.5 percent of voters supporting NATO accession.[80] In May 2013, Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili stated that his goal is to get a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for his country from NATO in 2014.[81] In June 2014, diplomats from NATO suggested that while a MAP was unlikely, a package of "reinforced cooperation" agreements was a possible compromise.[82]Anders Fogh Rasmussen confirmed that this could include the building of military capabilities and armed forces training.[83]
At the 2008 Bucharest summit, Greece blocked a proposed invitation because it believed that its neighbor's constitutional name implies territorial aspirations toward its own region of Greek Macedonia. NATO nations agreed that the country would receive an invitation upon resolution of the Macedonia naming dispute.[86] Macedonia sued Greece at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over their veto of Macedonia's NATO membership. The ICJ ruled in December 2011 that Greece was wrong to have blocked its neighbor's bid, finding them in breach of a 1995 interim accord that allowed Macedonia to join international organizations under the name "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", which is how NATO, with the exception of Turkey, recognizes their bid.[87] Greece also blocks North Macedonia's accession to the European Union over the naming dispute.[61] Macedonia was part of the Vilnius Group, and had formed the Adriatic Charter with Croatia and Albania in 2003 to better coordinate NATO accession.[88] In March 2016, North Macedonian Defense Minister Zoran Jolevski stated his hope that his country's handling of the European migrant crisis might bring it closer to NATO membership.[89]
A poll following the 2008 summit showed that 82.5 percent of citizens surveyed opposed changing the constitutional name in order to join NATO.[90] Elections were called following the 2008 summit, resulting in further support for the centre-right pro-NATO party, VMRO-DPMNE. The elections were marred by violence that was criticized by NATO members.[91] Ethnic tensions have persisted in North Macedonia, and NATO has called for dialogue following clashes such as those in the city of Kumanovo in 2015, which were blamed in part on the delay in NATO and European integration.[92][93] NATO membership in general is supported by 81 percent according to a November 2014 poll.[94] On 12 June 2017, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev signaled that he will consider alternatives names for the country in order to strike a compromise with Greece, settle the naming dispute, and lift Greek objections to North Macedonia joining the alliance. Zaev also floated the idea of North Macedonia joining the alliance under the provisional name it uses at the United Nations.[95] After the Prespa Agreement was reached in June 2018, NATO invited North Macedonia to begin membership talks on 11 July 2018, saying the country could join the organization once the naming issue was resolved.[96] Formal accession talks began on 18 October 2018[97] and NATO's members signed North Macedonia's accession protocol on 6 February 2019.[98]
As president, Viktor Yanukovych pursued closer relations with Russia.
Ukraine's present and future relationship with NATO has been politically divisive, and is part of a larger debate between Ukraine's political and cultural ties to both the European Union and Russia. It established ties to the alliance with a NATO–Ukraine Action Plan on 22 November 2002,[65][99] and joined NATO's Partnership for Peace initiative in February 2005.[100] Then in April 2005, Ukraine entered into the Intensified Dialogue programme with NATO.[50]
In March 2008, under Ukrainian PresidentViktor Yushchenko and Prime MinisterYulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine sent an official letter of application for a Membership Action Plan (MAP), the first step in joining NATO. These leaders however guaranteed their opposition that membership in any military alliance would not pass without public approval in a referendum.[101] This idea had gained support from a number of NATO leaders, particularly those in Central and Eastern Europe.[102] Russian leaders like Prime Minister and President-Elect Dmitry Medvedev made clear their opposition to Ukraine membership, and leading up to the April 2008 Bucharest summit their emissary actively lobbied against a Ukrainian MAP. After some debate among members at the summit, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer declared in a press conference that Ukraine, together with Georgia, would someday join NATO, but neither would begin Membership Action Plans.[103] At this summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his last international speech before switching jobs with Medvedev, listed his grievances with NATO, and called Ukrainian membership "a direct threat" to his country.[104]
The Euromaidan protests that led to Viktor Yanukovych fleeing the presidency attracted support from Western politicians.
The 2010 election returned Viktor Yanukovych to the presidency and marked a turnaround in Ukraine's relations with NATO. In February 2010, he stated that Ukraine's relations with NATO were currently "well-defined", and that there was "no question of Ukraine joining NATO". He said the issue of Ukrainian membership of NATO might "emerge at some point, but we will not see it in the immediate future".[105] While visiting Brussels in March 2010, he further stated that there would be no change to Ukraine's status as a member of the alliance's outreach programme.[106] He later reiterated during a trip to Moscow that Ukraine would remain a "European, non-aligned state".[107][108] Then, on 3 June 2010 the Ukrainian parliament voted to exclude the goal of "integration into Euro-Atlantic security and NATO membership" from the country's national security strategy in a bill drafted by Yanukovych himself.[109] The bill forbade Ukraine's membership in any military bloc, but allowed for co-operation with alliances such as NATO.[110]
Petro Poroshenko was elected as President of Ukraine in 2014, and met with NATO leaders prior to the Wales summit about relations with the alliance.
Following months of Euromaidan street protests that began because of his refusal to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union in favor of deals from Russia, President Yanukovych fled Kyiv in February 2014, ultimately to Russia, and parliament voted to remove him from his post. This brought another change in direction of Ukraine's association with Europe and by extension NATO. In 2014, pro-Russian unrest occurred in eastern Ukraine and Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation in March. As part of an effort to assuage concerned groups, newly installed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk addressed the topic in a speech on 18 March 2014, emphasizing that Ukraine was not seeking NATO membership.[111] US President Barack Obama echoed this position the following week, while calling for greater NATO presence in Eastern Europe.[112]
However, in response to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine,[113] Yatsenyuk announced his intentions to resume the bid for NATO integration on 29 August 2014,[114] and in December 2014, Ukraine's parliament voted to drop the non-aligned status that it adopted in 2010.[115]NATO Secretary GeneralAnders Fogh Rasmussen has stated that NATO membership is still an option for Ukraine,[116] and support for NATO membership has risen to 63.9 percent in government-controlled Ukraine according to a July 2015 poll.[117] Previous polls had shown that the decline in opposition to membership was linked to the ongoing Russian intervention.[118]
On 8 June 2017, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada passed a law making integration with NATO a foreign policy priority.[119] In July 2017 Poroshenko announced that he would seek the opening of negotiations on a Membership Action Plan with NATO.[120]
By March 2018, NATO had recognized Ukraine as an aspirant country.[56]
On September 20, 2018, the Ukrainian parliament approved amendments to the constitution that would make the accession of the country to NATO and the EU a central goal and the main foreign policy objective.[121]
Finland participates in nearly all sub-areas of the Partnership for Peace programme, and has provided peacekeeping forces to both the Afghanistan and Kosovo missions. The possibility of Finland's membership in NATO was one of the most important issues debated in relation to the Finnish presidential election of 2006, and continues to be a significant issue in Finnish politics.[123] In 2007, Finland made various technical preparations for membership, with the then Defence Minister Jyri Häkämies eager to pursue NATO membership.[124] Nevertheless, public interest in the issue has since decreased. In April 2014, the government announced that they would sign a "Memorandum of Understanding" with NATO on Finland's readiness to receive military assistance and to aid NATO in equipment maintenance. However, Defence Minister Carl Haglund emphasized that this memorandum would not be a step towards membership.[125]
Out of the major Finnish political parties, the National Coalition Party and Swedish People's Party of Finland support NATO membership. In 2016, the party conference of the National Coalition Party agreed that Finland should apply for membership in the "following years".[126] In the vision of the Swedish People's Party of Finland, Finland will be a NATO member in 2025.[127] Many individual politicians have advocated for NATO as well, including the current President Sauli Niinistö and former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb,[128] as well as former President Martti Ahtisaari,[123][129] who has argued that Finland should join all the organizations supported by other Western democracies in order "to shrug off once and for all the burden of Finlandization."[130] Two other former presidents from the Social Democratic Party, Tarja Halonen and Mauno Koivisto, have publicly opposed the idea, arguing that NATO membership would deteriorate Finland's relations with Russia.[131]
Finland has received some very critical feedback from Russia for even considering the possibility of joining NATO,[132] with a 2009 study suggesting this could have repercussions for Russia's relations with the EU and NATO as a whole.[133] Following the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, Finnish Prime MinisterMatti Vanhanen reiterated that Finland had no plans to join NATO, and stated that the main lesson of the war was the need for closer ties to Russia.[134] In a June 2014 interview in the Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet, Vladimir Putin's personal envoy Sergey Alexandrovich Markov accused Finland of extreme "Russophobia" and suggested that Finland joining NATO could start World War III.[135] In July 2016, Putin stated on a visit to Finland, that Russia would increase the number of troops on the Finnish border if Finland were to join NATO. He also warned that NATO would "fight to the last Finn against Russia".[136][137]
A survey conducted by Finnish pollster EVA in January 2015 found that 43 percent of Finns polled opposed NATO membership, while 26 percent supported and 32 percent were undecided. EVA has noted a downward trend in the percent opposed that started in 1998, including a steep decline after the 2012 presidential election.[138] In March 2014, during Russia's annexation of Crimea, one survey showed only 22 percent supported membership,[139] though a second showed that 53 percent would support membership if Finnish leadership recommended it.[140] Support for a military alliance with neighbor Sweden was also high, at 54 percent,[141] and Finland could possibly seek an enlarged role for NORDEFCO.[142]Finnish Minister of Defence Carl Haglund suggested that a referendum on NATO membership could be held sometime after the 2015 parliamentary election.[143] The newest poll from October 2017 showed that support for membership remained at 22%, while rising to 33% in the suggested scenario in which Sweden would join.[144]
Currently no major political party in Ireland fully supports ascension into NATO, a reflection on public and media opinion in the country.[150] There are a number of politicians who support Ireland joining NATO, mainly within the centre-right Fine Gael party, but the majority of politicians still do not.[151][152] It is widely understood that a referendum would have to be held before any changes could be made to neutrality or to joining NATO.[153] Former Secretary General of NATOAnders Fogh Rasmussen said during a visit to the country in 2013 that the "door is open" for Ireland to join NATO at any time.[154]
Moldova's constitution forbids the country from joining a military alliance, but some politicians, such as Moldovan Minister of Defence Vitalie Marinuța, have suggested joining NATO as part of a larger European integration. Moldova joined NATO's Partnership for Peace in 1994, and initiated an Individual Partnership Action Plan in 2010.[155] Following the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, NATO officials warned that Russia might seek to annex Transnistria, a breakaway Moldovan region.[156] This separatist issue could preclude Moldova from joining NATO.[155]
Serbia's Parliament passed a resolution in 2007 which declared their military neutrality until such time as a referendum was held on the issue.[157] On 1 October 2008, Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Šutanovac signed the Information Exchange Agreement with NATO, one of the prerequisites for fuller membership in the Partnership for Peace programme.[158] In April 2011 Serbia's request for an IPAP was approved by NATO,[159] and Serbia submitted a draft IPAP in May 2013.[160] The agreement was finalized on 15 January 2015.[161]
Sweden has close relations with NATO and NATO members, and participates in training exercises like the Admiral Pitka Recon Challenge in Estonia.
In 1949 Sweden chose not to join NATO and declared a security policy aiming for non-alignment in peace and neutrality in war.[165] A modified version now qualifies non-alignment in peace for possible neutrality in war. This position was maintained without much discussion during the Cold War. Since the 1990s however there has been an active debate in Sweden on the question of NATO membership in the post–Cold War world.[166] These ideological divides were visible in November 2006 when Sweden could either buy two new transport planes or join NATO's plane pool, and in December 2006, when Sweden was invited to join the NATO Response Force.[167][168] Sweden have been active participants in NATO-led missions in Bosnia (IFOR and SFOR), Kosovo (KFOR), Afghanistan (ISAF), and Libya (Operation Unified Protector).[169]
The ruling Swedish Social Democratic Party have remained in favour of neutrality and non-alignment.[170] This preference is shared by their partners, the Green Party, as well as the Left Party. The centre-right Moderate Party and the Liberal Party are the largest parties by current parliamentary representation in favor of NATO membership.[171] The 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea is credited with renewed public calls for NATO membership from notable politicians.[172][173] The Centre Party was opposed to NATO membership until September 2015, when party leadership under Annie Lööf announced that they would motion to change the party policy in order to push for Sweden to join NATO at their next party conference. The Christian Democrats, also previously opposed, likewise voted to support NATO membership at their party meeting on 9 October 2015.[174]
Polling has shown a rise in support for NATO membership among Swedes since 2008 according to Ipsos polling, going from 22 percent in May 2008 to 33 percent in January 2015,[175][176] with another from the SOM Institute in May 2015 showing similar numbers.[177] According to Svenska Dagbladet, support in 2011 was at 23 percent,[178] and has risen somewhat significantly to 41 percent in September 2015, when only 39 percent of respondents were opposed to NATO membership.[179] An October 2014 survey commissioned by TV4 News also showed slightly more respondents supporting membership than opposing it.[175] In 2014, news that a military expert in Sweden had calculated that the country could hold out for a week if attacked temporarily lifted support for NATO membership in polls.[180] A May 2017 poll by Pew showed that support for membership had risen to 47 percent.[181]
Christopher Sands of the Hudson Institute proposed Mexican membership of NATO in order to enhance NATO cooperation with Mexico and develop a "North American pillar" for regional security.[193] In June 2013, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos stated his hope that Colombia's cooperation with NATO could result in NATO membership, though his Foreign Minister, Juan Carlos Pinzon, quickly clarified that Colombia is not actively seeking NATO membership.[194]Ivo Daalder and James Goldgeier proposed a "global NATO" that would incorporate democratic states from around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, South Africa, and India,[195] while Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani suggested expanding NATO to include Singapore, Israel, Australia, India, and Japan.[196] Expanding NATO outside of Europe would require amending Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty.[195]
^ abcdefKramer, Mark; Shifrinson, Joshua R. Itzkowitz (2017-07-01). "NATO Enlargement—Was There a Promise?". International Security. 42 (1): 186–192. doi:10.1162/isec_c_00287. ISSN0162-2889.
^ abc"Deal or No Deal? The End of the Cold War and the U.S. Offer to Limit NATO Expansion". doi:10.1162/ISEC_a_00236.
^Kramer, Mark (2009-04-01). "The Myth of a No-NATO-Enlargement Pledge to Russia". The Washington Quarterly. 32 (2): 39–61. doi:10.1080/01636600902773248. ISSN0163-660X.
^Epstein, Rachel (2006). "Nato Enlargement and the Spread of Democracy: Evidence and Expectations". Security Studies. 14: 63–105. doi:10.1080/09636410591002509.
^"Adriatic Charter Fact Sheet". Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. U.S. Department of State. 25 August 2011. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2015.
^"Putin admits Russian forces were deployed to Crimea", Reuters, 17 April 2014, We had to take unavoidable steps so that events did not develop as they are currently developing in southeast Ukraine. ... Of course our troops stood behind Crimea's self-defence forces.
The Balkans, also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographic area in southeastern Europe with various definitions and meanings, including geopolitical and historical. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria from the Serbian-Bulgarian border to the Black Sea coast. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea on the northwest, the Ionian Sea on the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south and southeast, and the Black Sea on the east and northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala, 2,925 metres (9,596 ft), in the Rila mountain range.
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries. The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949. NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. NATO’s Headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.
Enlargement of the European Union
The European Union (EU) has expanded a number of times throughout its history by way of the accession of new member states to the Union. To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria, which require a stable democratic government that respects the rule of law, and its corresponding freedoms and institutions. According to the Maastricht Treaty, each current member state and the European Parliament must agree to any enlargement. The process of enlargement is sometimes referred to as European integration. This term is also used to refer to the intensification of co-operation between EU member states as national governments allow for the gradual harmonisation of national laws.
Partnership for Peace
The Partnership for Peace (PfP) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) program aimed at creating trust between NATO and other states in Europe and the former Soviet Union; 21 states are members. It was first discussed by the Bulgarian Society Novae, after being proposed as an American initiative at the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Travemünde, Germany, on 20–21 October 1993, and formally launched on 10–11 January 1994 NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium. According to declassified U.S. State Department records, President Bill Clinton characterized the Partnership for Peace as a "track that will lead to NATO membership" and that "does not draw another line dividing Europe a few hundred miles to the east."
Central European Free Trade Agreement
The Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) is a trade agreement between non-EU countries, members of which are now mostly located in Southeastern Europe. Founded by representatives of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, CEFTA expanded to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the UNMIK.
Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe, abbreviated CEE, is a term encompassing the countries in Central Europe, the Baltics, Eastern Europe, and Southeastern Europe (Balkans), usually meaning former communist states from the Eastern Bloc in Europe. Scholarly literature often uses the abbreviations CEE or CEEC for this term. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development also uses the term "Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs)" for a group comprising some of these countries.
Individual Partnership Action Plan
Individual Partnership Action Plans (IPAP) are plans developed between NATO and different countries which outline the objectives and the communication framework for dialogue and cooperation between both parties. NATO launched the IPAPs initiative at the 2002 Prague Summit.
Accession of Albania to the European Union
The Republic of Albania has been an official candidate for accession to the European Union (EU) since June 2014 and is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU.
Accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union
The accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union is the stated aim of the present relations between the two entities. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been recognised by the EU as a "potential candidate country" for accession since the decision of the European Council in Thessaloniki in 2003 and is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU. Bosnia and Herzegovina takes part in the Stabilisation and Association Process, and the relative bilateral SAA agreement has been signed in 2008, ratified in 2010, and entered into force in 2015. Meanwhile, the trade bilateral relations are regulated by an Interim Agreement. Bosnia formally applied for EU membership in February 2016, and it remains a potential candidate country until it gets a response from the Council.
Accession of Serbia to the European Union
The accession of Serbia to the European Union is the process of the Republic of Serbia being admitted to the European Union as a member state and it is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU.
2008 Bucharest summit
The 2008 Bucharest Summit or the 20th NATO Summit was a NATO summit organized in the Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest, Romania on 2 – 4 April 2008. Among other business, Croatia and Albania were invited to join the alliance. Macedonia was not invited due to its ongoing naming dispute with Greece. Georgia and Ukraine had hoped to join the NATO Membership Action Plan, but the NATO members decided to review their request in December 2008.
Future enlargement of the European Union
There are five recognised candidates for future membership of the European Union: Turkey, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, and Serbia. All except Albania and North Macedonia have started accession negotiations. Kosovo, whose independence is not recognised by five EU member states, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are recognised as potential candidates for membership by the EU. Bosnia and Herzegovina has formally submitted an application for membership, while Kosovo has a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU, which generally precedes the lodging of membership application. In July 2014, Jean-Claude Juncker announced that the EU has no plans to expand before 2019 while Serbia and Montenegro, the most advanced candidates, are expected to join before 2025. While the others are progressing, Turkish talks are at an effective standstill.
Ukraine–NATO relations
Relations between Ukraine and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) started in 1994. Ukraine applied to join the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 2008. Plans for NATO membership were shelved by Ukraine following the 2010 presidential election in which Viktor Yanukovych, who preferred to keep the country non-aligned, was elected President. Amid the Euromaidan unrest, Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014. The interim Yatsenyuk Government which came to power, initially said, with reference to the country's non-aligned status, that it had no plans to join NATO. However, following the Russian military invasion in Ukraine and parliamentary elections in October 2014, the new government made joining NATO a priority.
Accession of North Macedonia to the European Union
North Macedonia's accession to the European Union (EU) has been on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU since 2005, when it became as a candidate for accession, but it has not yet entered into accession negotiations. It submitted its membership application in 2004, thirteen years after its independence from Yugoslavia. As of September 2018, it was one of five candidate countries, together with Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey, after the latest round of enlargement that brought membership to Croatia. Accession to the EU has been defined as the highest strategic priority for the country's government.
Montenegro–NATO relations
The accession of Montenegro to NATO (NATO) took place on 5 June 2017. In December 2009, Montenegro was granted a Membership Action Plan, the final step in an application for membership in the organization. A formal invitation was issued by the alliance on 2 December 2015, with accession negotiations concluded with the signature by the Foreign Ministers of an Accession Protocol on 19 May 2016. Montenegro officially joined NATO on 5 June 2017.
Accession of North Macedonia to NATO
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 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Two years later, NATO intervened in the 2001 Macedonian insurgency. At the 2008 Bucharest summit, Greece vetoed the country's invitation to join; however NATO nations agreed that the country would receive an invitation upon resolution of the Macedonia naming dispute. Following an agreement in June 2018 to rename the country the "Republic of North Macedonia", the permanent representatives to NATO of the member states signed a protocol on the accession of North Macedonia to NATO on 6 February 2019.
Foreign relations of NATO
NATOmaintains foreign relations with many non-member countries across the globe. NATO runs a number of programs which provide a framework for the partnerships between itself and these non-member nations, typically based on that country's location. These include the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and the Partnership for Peace.
Berlin Process
The Berlin Process is a diplomatic initiative linked to the future enlargement of the European Union. It started with the 2014 Conference of Western Balkan States, Berlin, followed by the 2015 Vienna Summit, 2016 Paris Summit and the 2017 Trieste Summit. The last conference was held in July 2018 in London. The Berlin Process was initiated in order to consolidate and keep the dynamics in EU integration process in the light of increased euroscepticism and 5-year stoppage of expansion announced by Commission President Jean Claude Juncker.