At its latest summit in Brussels last week, NATO invited Macedonia to start membership negotiations. Once admitted, under a new name and with an amended constitution, it would become the 30th member of the military-political alliance.
Unlike the EU, which appears increasingly unsympathetic to further expansion in the Balkans, there is no enlargement fatigue in the Atlantic alliance, for all its internal and external turbulence.
Although the two organizations share most of the same membership, the EU is in contraction – with Britain on its way out – while NATO is still in expansion mode.
Twenty-five years since the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the geostrategic landscape of the region, historically known for its non-aligned policy, has dramatically changed.
Slovenia was first to join the alliance in 2004, followed by Albania and Croatia in 2009 and Montenegro in 2017.
Following NATO’s invitation to Macedonia, what remains in the region are somewhat more “difficult” cases – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo.
The former two are difficult because of the historic links between Serbs and Russians; the latter because of Kosovo’s unresolved status and relations with Serbia.
On July 10, ahead of the NATO Summit at Brussels, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, meanwhile insisted that the invitation extended to Macedonia would “not change our relationship with Serbia”.
This showed that NATO is aware of the regional implications of its expansion in the Balkans, and of the sensitivity of its relations with Serbia after the alliance’s 1999 military campaign against Serbian military targets, undertaken to stop the war in Kosovo.
The membership of Macedonia, or of a future Northern Macedonia, will not change NATO’s attitude to Serbia, a top alliance official stressed.
On the other hand, an even more important question for Belgrade is whether NATO’s expansion up to its borders will compel Serbia to change its own attitude towards the alliance and the geopolitics of the region.
Several aspects of a possible answer need to be considered.
The immediate landscape around Serbia is, for sure, going to change. In general terms, the southern wing of the alliance will be reinforced, with the number of disputes getting fewer and NATO’s umbrella getting bigger. The “security vacuum” will shrink.
For more read the full of article at The Balkaninsight
