FYROM Draws up Declaration on NATO Bid

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FYROM’s ruling parties have drawn up declaration for parliament, urging NATO to keep the door open for the country's membership.

The draft, which entered parliament on Tuesday, comes ahead of the Alliance summit in Chicago in May at which FYROM hopes to push its bid for membership - "currently blocked by Greece".

The text put forward by centre-right VMRO DPMNE party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the junior Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, says the country has met all of the criteria and conditions for NATO membership and wants to join as soon as possible.

“FYROM remains committed to continuous reforms and support of peacekeeping missions aimed at securing global peace and democracy,” the draft reads.

Among other things the text urges NATO to respect its “open doors” principle and to heed the World Court ruling earlier this year, "which deemed Greece’s blockade" of FYROM’s NATO accession illegal.

Greece and FYROM are locked in a two-decade dispute over how the former Yugoslav republic should call itself. Greece insists that its neighbour’s use of the name “Macedonia” implies a territorial claim to its own northern province of the same name.

Last December, the International Court of Justice, ICJ, ruled that Greece had breached an interim deal brokered by the UN in 1995 when it blocked FYROM’s attempt to join NATO in 2008.

However, the court did not directly order Greece to stop the "blockade", as FYROM had requested.

As part of FYROM’s last-ditch attempts to expedite its NATO membership bid,  FYROM's Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki urged the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to lend his support at a meeting on Tuesday in New York.

But most observers doubt that FYROM will make any real progress in Chicago, especially after influential NATO states repeated that the country needs to settle the name dispute first.

The document, which can expect supported from all parliamentary parties, further emphasizes that fostering neighbourly ties is of vital importance in enabling development of the region.

"Our goal is to constantly improve our mutual collaboration with our neighbours in the interest of country's citizens," the draft says.

Sinisa Jakov Marusic (Balkan Insight)

*(After the necessary corrections with the name "FYROM".  

GREECE recognised this country with the name "FYROM")

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FYROM parlament

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