US Supports BiH, Montenegro for NATO MAP
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen visited Montenegro and then Bosnia Herzegovina, two countries that have applied to join NATO's Membership Action Plan (MAP). In both countries, he stressed NATO's desire to see both enter the Alliance, and the European Union, as the best recipe for lasting security and stability.
He discussed with leaders in both countries the reforms both countries have to pursue, and they looked forward to decisions on the Member Action Plan (MAP) that will be taken at the Foreign Minister's meeting on December 3rd and 4th.
On November 18 in Sarajevo Seven Southeast European countries' defence ministers and the US Department of Defence met to discuss further regional co-operation and the NATO enlargement process.
The meeting -- the 5th involving the US-Adriatic Charter defence ministers -- was attended by Albanian Deputy Minister Arian Starova, Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) Defence Minister Selmo Cikotic, Croatian State Secretary of Defence Pjer Simunovic, Macedonian Defence Minister Zoran Konjanovski, Montenegrin Defence Minister Boro Vucinic and US Assistant Secretary of Defence Ambassador Alexander Vershbow. They were joined by Slovenian Defence Minister Ljubica Jelisic and Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac, from guest and observer countries.
After the meeting, Vershbow reiterated US support for the early approval of BiH and Montenegro's applications for the Membership Action Plan (MAP). He also said full NATO membership for Macedonia will be backed, as soon as the issue of its name is resolved.
He stressed that regional co-operation must involve "sharing knowledge and expertise, as well as combined training and deployment and asserting collective leadership on Charter members' necessary reforms".
At Wednesday's meeting, the ministers agreed to sign a joint statement that envisions enhancing co-operation through regional centres in the Western Balkans. They stressed that ideas for the establishment of a Co-ordination Cell, at the Peace Support Operation Training Centre (PSOTC) in Sarajevo, will soon be presented at the policy level.
The ministers stressed the importance of providing support to BiH and Montenegro in their efforts to be integrated in Euro-Atlantic structures, and said they expect Macedonia's full-fledged NATO integration in the near future.
"By successfully overcoming the numerous challenges we have been facing in the past period, our region demonstrated its capacity to raise itself to the level of standards expected from future NATO and EU members, and serve as a model of democratic transformation," Macedonia's Konjanovski said.
BiH's Cikotic stressed that countries of the region must prove that their joint interests are above the interests of individual countries. "It is important that everybody learn from BiH's experience of 15 years ago, when we paid a high price for mutual non-co-operation," he said.
The US-Adriatic Charter is an association of countries from the Adriatic region that are working together to boost their attempts to join NATO. It was formed by Albania, Croatia, Macedonia and the US in 2003, and joined by Montenegro and BiH in 2008. On April 1st of this year, Albania and Croatia became NATO members.
NATO foreign ministers are set to meet in Brussels this week to decide whether to provide Montenegro and Bosnia with a membership action plan, the forerunner to joining the 28-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
Rasmussen warned that both countries face an uphill battle for acceptance, saying it was not certain that the time was right.
"We appreciate the progress achieved in both countries, but there is still work to be done, less in Montenegro, much more in Bosnia," he said in an video posted at Secretary general's corner.
To join NATO, aspirants must complete political, democratic and military reforms, as well as have good relations with their neighbours. Their citizens must also be in favour of their candidacies.
According to NATO Spokesman JAMES APPATHURAI: "The basic principle is this: All the allies believe, and the Secretary General believes, that the most effective tool for promoting peace and security in the Balkans is Euro-Atlantic integration, and to be more specific, to bring these countries into NATO and the EU.
Both countries have applied for Membership Action Plan. The allies welcomed both of those applications. In the principle... or in the context of that desire to see Euro-Atlantic integration for all countries in the Balkans, the Foreign Ministers will, I believe, make decisions on MAP for these two countries. There are active discussions under way now amongst allies about whether now is the time to bring them into the MAP process, to answer positively their MAP applications.
But one point is very important, NATO judges each application on the basis of the individual merits of the individual country. There is absolutely no linkage between these two countries when it comes to their MAP applications."
Bosnia’s military comprises 10,000 active troops and 5,000 reservists. Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the Partnership for Peace in December 2006. The country’s cooperation with NATO is set out in an Individual Partnership Programme (IPP). Bosnia and Herzegovina started to participate at PfP Planning and Review Process (PARP) in May 2007. It has also developed an Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) to deepen cooperation with NATO, which was jointly approved by Bosnia and Herzegovina and the North Atlantic Council on 16 September 2008.
Montenegro, a nation of 630,000 people, gained independence in 2006. Its army numbers 2,300 professional soldiers. Montenegro joined the Partnership for Peace in December 2006. Montenegro agreed its first Individual Partnership Programme (IPP) with NATO in January 2008. Cooperation was deepened in July 2008, when its first Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) was agreed. A first NATO assessment of the implementation by Montenegro of its IPAP took place in early 2009.
References:
1. North Atlantic Treaty Organization http://www.nato.int
2. US Department of State http://www.state.gov
3. SETimes.com http://www.setimes.com
4. NATO Secretary General's Corner http://andersfogh.info/
5. PIMS Members site https://members.pims.org (requires registration and login)