I personally witnessed the Bucharest Summit and since then NATO membership has been an unfinished business for me. I am really pleased to now be able to witness positive developments in that direction, said Tacan Ildem, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy at a debate at the Economist Western Balkans Summit in Skopje, referring to Macedonia’s expected membership in the Alliance.

According to him, the country embarked on an incredible journey towards European and transatlantic integration, which marked both the courage and commitment to resolve the name issue that has kept the country’s progress for a long time, and NATO also kept its word and the promises made in Bucharest were respected.

We look forward to completing RNM’s accession process and I think we have made good progress. Twenty-two of the 29 member states have already ratified the NATO Accession Protocol. Once all states have ratified and submitted the instrument of ratification then the process will be completed and we welcome North Macedonia as the 30th member state of the Alliance. It is very important to see that NATO has an open door policy and that it is really implemented in practice. It is also important that it will happen on the 70th anniversary and that even after 70 years it attracts many countries that wish to join in contributing to our collective security and defense, and also have benefits from it, Ildem says.

The ratification process of the NATO Membership Protocol, according to Ildem, runs smoothly, but depending on the political developments in certain countries, it can only lead to being postponed to a later date in terms of the accession.

Regarding the Western Balkans region, he said it could be described as a truly changing landscape, but there is still work to be done to make sure positive changes cannot be reversed and that the region will focus all its attention on prosperity and development, not living in fear of conflict.

NATO and the member states will continue to contribute to this end, said the NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy.