Montenegro invited to join NATO
December 2, 2015
NATO has invited Montenegro to join the US-led military alliance, in its first expansion for six years. The decision, described by Nato head Jens Stoltenberg as “historic”, comes 16 years after the alliance bombed Montenegro during the Kosovo war, when it was still part of Yugoslavia.
Russia has repeatedly warned against the move, describing it as a threat to stability in the western Balkans. Accession talks are expected to take about a year to complete. The invitation to Montenegro is Nato’s first expansion into eastern Europe since Albania and Croatia joined in 2009. Besides Montenegro and Georgia, the other current candidates for Nato membership are Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia.