Northern Macedonia officially became the 30th member of NATO - the corresponding document was signed on March 21 by President Stevo Pendarovski.

“With this document, I as the president of the state solemnly declare that the Republic of Northern Macedonia joins the North Atlantic Treaty and undertakes to abide by and comply with all the provisions of this treaty,” RIA Novosti quoted the head of state.

The document was signed after it passed the ratification procedure by all 29 legislative assemblies of the countries - members of the alliance. The last document signed by the Spanish Parliament on March 17. However, the traditional official event of transferring the storage agreement to the US State Department in the presence of department head Mike Pompeo and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg did not take place because of the coronavirus epidemic.

As an expert of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies Sergey Ermakov noted in an interview with RT, the NATO expansion policy does not stop, and the open door strategy is being actively implemented in practice.

“We can expect that in the future the number of NATO member states can grow, despite the alliance’s complex and internal problems, which was demonstrated by the anniversary summit in December 2019, at which it was difficult for the Allies to agree on an ambitious agenda,” the expert noted.

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Recall that North Macedonia joined the NATO Membership Action Plan back in 1999. In March - June 1999, the republic provided its bases, airfields and roads for the movement of the alliance forces on its territory.

  • NATO Headquarters
  • © Francois Lenoir / Reuters

However, Skopje's entry into the alliance has long been hindered by Greece. The reason for this was the name of the Balkan country - in Greece there is a region, also called Macedonia. At the United Nations, Northern Macedonia was admitted in 1993 under the name “The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”.

The dispute was settled at the state level in 2018. Then, an agreement was concluded between the parties, according to which Greece lifted its veto on the country's accession to NATO, and in return the former Yugoslav republic had to change its name to Northern Macedonia.

This agreement provoked protests in the country, after which the issue of NATO membership at the cost of renouncing the name of the country and an agreement with Greece was submitted to a national referendum in September 2018.

Most citizens of the country boycotted him at the call of the opposition, and the referendum was declared invalid due to low turnout. But since this expression was advisory in nature, MPs still voted in favor of an agreement with Greece.

On January 11, 2019, the Constitution was amended and the country became known as Northern Macedonia. On February 6, an agreement was signed on its accession to NATO. As a result, Greece became the first member of the alliance to ratify this document.

The opposition now in northern Macedonia in 2019 made attempts to initiate a new referendum on this issue, but they were unsuccessful.

After NATO - to the EU

Stevo Pendarovski, who was elected President of Northern Macedonia in May 2019, after taking office, first promised to continue work on the republic’s entry into NATO and the European Union, and also announced plans to increase the defense budget to 2% of GDP and to modernize the army.

  • President of Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski
  • Reuters
  • © Ognen Teofilovski

The United States actively helped the former Yugoslav republic with NATO membership. In 2019, Skopje expressed his support for the head of the State Department, Mike Pompeo, and the U.S. Senate ratified the protocol on the accession of Northern Macedonia to the alliance in October 2019 by a majority vote.

However, at the same time, they are in no hurry to accept the republic into the European Union. In October 2019, the EU Council was unable to reach consensus on the start of negotiations on the entry of Northern Macedonia and Albania into the union - France and the Netherlands opposed the start of the discussion on the issue. Now new negotiations on EU membership should take place in April 2020.

Moreover, Northern Macedonia already has the status of an official candidate for joining the union, which obliges the EU to sooner or later accept the republic into its ranks. However, this process may be postponed indefinitely - for example, consultations on the issue of Turkey’s membership in the EU officially started back in 2005.

According to the head of the Center for Ethnic and Political Conflicts of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Pavel Kandel, the authorities of Northern Macedonia expect that the formal admission of the country to NATO will accelerate the resolution of the issue of EU membership.

“Macedonia expects that a decision will be made in the near future on the start of preliminary negotiations with the EU. The leadership of Northern Macedonia perceives NATO as a pass to the European Union. In addition, given the relationship between the Macedonian majority and the Albanian minority, it hopes that NATO membership will to some extent guarantee the country's political stability, which I’m not at all sure of, ”the expert noted.

Unnecessary ally

Experts note that the value of Northern Macedonia as a member of the military-political bloc is very small - the number of armed forces of the Balkan country does not exceed 8 thousand people. She does not have her own military-industrial complex and has little equipment, due to the lack of access to the sea, Northern Macedonia does not have a fleet, so her armed forces are not divided into types.

  • Macedonian soldiers on the border with Greece
  • Reuters
  • © Marko Djurica

A small amount of equipment inherited by the republic after the collapse of Yugoslavia is mainly represented by Soviet models. The country's defense budget is about $ 108 million.

Some states consider joining the North Atlantic Alliance as joining the club of the “chosen ones”, they consider this a kind of step into the European community, full integration into Europe, said Sergey Ermakov.

“From an economic point of view, joining NATO in Northern Macedonia will not work, because the North Atlantic Alliance is a military-political organization, whose members should spend 2% of GDP on the military needs of the alliance. For Northern Macedonia, entry will be an additional burden, since the country will have to pay a certain amount for NATO's needs in conditions where there is no external danger that would threaten the survival of this state, ”the expert explained.

For the elite of Northern Macedonia, which positions itself as a pan-European, western, joining NATO is an important status moment, emphasized Sergey Ermakov.

A similar point of view is shared by Paul Kandel. In his opinion, Northern Macedonia should not count on any financial support from NATO, especially given the desire of the United States to force the allies in the bloc to high costs.

“The North Atlantic Alliance will ensure that the country meets the criteria of the alliance, for example, spending at least 2% of GDP on defense. This is clearly more than what Macedonia is spending now and what it can afford. The country is extremely poor and it is completely unnecessary for it to spend such amounts on defense, ”the expert explained.

The only benefit of Skopje's admission to the alliance is the territorial expansion of NATO, says Pavel Kandel.

“From Macedonia, the leadership of the alliance does not expect any significant contribution or assistance in increasing the strength of the alliance, since it clearly understands that it is not capable of this. The goal of NATO is to expand and gain territory of the Balkan Peninsula, ”the expert concluded.