Response to Putin: NATO Accelerates Balkan Expansion!

The crisis in Ukraine could accelerate the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Macedonia to the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO), multiple diplomatic sources from Brussels confirmed to the BiH news agency Patria (NAP). In this regard, the announced visit of NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to Sarajevo on May 21st of this year is also extremely important.

As we learn, in the coming weeks, BiH authorities will be under a new wave of diplomatic pressure to resolve the issue of military property and launch the Membership Action Plan (MAP).

As stated to Patria, the expansionist policy of Russia and President Vladimir Putin, the annexation of Crimea, and the instability in Ukraine have returned the expansion of NATO to the priorities of Western allies, which is also a great opportunity for our country.

In this context, NATO expansion means the accession of Western Balkan countries that are already in the process of joining, and opening the door for Kosovo to join the bloc. Further expansion to the east, to Ukraine and Georgia, will remain on hold due to Germany's stance.

This is confirmed, as NAP reports, by the stance of Ditmir Bushati, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania, who strongly advocated in an op-ed for the Turkish newspaper Today Zeman today that the remaining countries of the region should join NATO, otherwise "the annexation of Crimea will be just the beginning," NAP reports.

He criticized the Alliance's leadership for its previous lack of interest, arguing that the situation has changed since the last visit of Barack Obama, the President of the USA, to Europe last month.

Bushati: Open the door for other Eastern European countries to become members of the Alliance

- Fortunately, the Alliance has begun to move in the right direction. After the recent emergency meeting in Brussels, Obama announced a regular NATO presence in the "vulnerable" member states of the Alliance in Eastern Europe. This is an important step towards strengthening NATO's presence in the region. But much more needs to be done - stated Bushati. According to him, the door must remain open for all countries that can meet the conditions.

And the only remaining condition for BiH is the commencement of registration of 63 military locations owned by the state, after which the Membership Action Plan would begin, gradually leading BiH to membership in the world's strongest military-political bloc.