Wednesday 20 October 2010
THE DOORS OF NATO ARE OPEN FOR ALL THE COUNTRIES FROM THE BALKANS
On the second day of the 75th Rose-Roth Seminar “South-Eastern Europe: Creating New Momentum”, held in cooperation with the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia and the NATO PA, the participants emphasized that NATO as an organization oriented to security keeps its doors open for membership of all the Balkan countries.
After the yesterday’s first session “The Republic of Macedonia: lessons learned in preventing conflict and building a multiethnic society”, the today’s second session was dedicated to the topic: Supporting reform processes in the Western Balkans: Are new strategies needed? The third session dealt with the NATO’s role in the Western Balkans after Lisbon: expectations and perspectives, and the topic of the forth session held during the afternoon was: creating new momentum for reconciliation and regional cooperating in the Balkans.
Ms. Lubov Sliska, Head of the Russian Delegation to the NATO PA, was Moderator of the second session.
The question whether NATO is tired from the enlargement was raised, and Professor Florian Bieber from the University of Graz answered that this is not appropriate time to raise this question, having in mind all the hopes and promises given to the countries from the region.
The Moderator of the third session, Mr. Nano Ružin, Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences at FON University and former Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia to NATO, said that the Seminar is a forum for information and acquiring new knowledge through discussions and exchange of ideas.
Jaroslaw Skonieczka from the NATO Headquarters pointed out that it is beyond belief that he should refer to our country as former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and not with its constitutional name. He added that our country has to be given recognition for what it is doing. Regarding the name issue, he said that NATO is not included directly in the dispute and that it can only give advice and encourage the resolution of this issue.
The Albanian Ambassador to NATO said that all the allies were sad when Macedonia did not became NATO member at the Bucharest Summit and that he still believes that the country will be given the invitation for membership it deserves and that the Macedonian soldiers will serve equally with the Greek and other soldiers from the NATO member states.
Oliver Karliu from the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the participation of the Republic of Macedonia in the peace missions is very significant. He underlined that NATO has all the preconditions to answer positively to the enlargement, and that the Republic of Macedonia should receive the invitation for membership.
Lazar Elenovski, President of the Euro-Atlantic Council of Macedonia, chaired the forth session. Jovan Teokarević, Professor from the Faculty of Political Sciences, Belgrade University, gave presentation on assessing the recent efforts at resolving bilateral disputes and promoting regional co-operation, Sule Kut, Rector of the Okan University in Istanbul, talked about the regional disputes in the Balkans and the role of Turkey. Among the other speakers were H.E. Ambassador Erwan Fouéré, EU Special Representative for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Dalibor Jovanovski, professor for Balkans history, Institute of History at the Faculty of Philosophy, UKIM, and Evangelos Kofos, Senior Advisor - Balkan Area at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), Athens, who talked about the prospects for resolving the name issue.
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