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Macedonia rift clouds bloc expansion offers
Nato leaders have agreed to welcome Croatia and Albania into the bloc, but failed to reach a consensus on invitating Macedonia because of Greek opposition.
- By Habib Toumi, Bahrain Bureau Chief
- Published: 00:44 April 4, 2008
Bucharest: Nato leaders have agreed to welcome Croatia and Albania into the bloc, but failed to reach a consensus on invitating Macedonia because of Greek opposition.
Croatia immediately welcomed the invitation by the 26-member alliance to join the Membership Action Plan (MAP), the precursor to Nato membership, hailing it "a stimulus to accept Croatia as a full member of the European Union".
However, the offer to Croatia and Albania was overshadowed by the setback to expansion protagonists after the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's membership bid was vetoed by Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis who insisted that the "name issue" of the former Yugoslav republic should be resolved first.
Greece and Macedonia have been at loggerheads for 16 years over the name as the northern Greek pro-vince of Macedonia also share the same name.
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