APD | North Macedonia keen to join NATO April next year

By APD writer Aditya Nugraha

**SKOPJE, Sept. 25 (APD) ** - North Macedonia Foreign Affairs Minister Nikola Dimitrov said that the nation’s process to become a fully-fledged North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member should be done by April 2020, adding that NATO cannot intervene in the Protocol’s process.

Accession Protocol has so far been ratified by 22 out of 29 NATO members. The April deadline is based upon the plan for the accession process implementation, containing the indicator or timeframe for the accomplishment of the accession process.

Meeting of NATO leaders in London this December to mark NATO 70th anniversary can also be used to promote the policy of open doors, which would be of great importance to North Macedonia, Dimitrov said.

“If one country fails with the ratification process and the process is accomplished next year, it has to be looked upon as a technical issue,” he added.

North Macedonia Defense Minister Radmila Šekerinska said earlier that the nation’s full-fledged membership as a technical issue and a matter of time.

The defense minister also expects no obstacles in the protocol’s process to be part of NATO member countries.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)