The Balkan nations that became NATO member states have not benefited from joining the alliance despite their expectations, Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko told Sputnik on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2019) The Balkan nations that became NATO member states have not benefited from joining the alliance despite their expectations, Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko told Sputnik on Monday.
According to the ambassador, before joining the military bloc, the Balkan countries were often told that NATO membership would boost their investment attractiveness and have a specific economic effect, neither of which happened.
"The Balkan countries that joined NATO did not receive any advantages," he said.
On the contrary, new member countries had to cover additional costs as required by the alliance, the diplomat indicated.
Moreover, Botsan-Kharchenko said that joining the bloc had not helped to settle disputes between Balkan nations. He cited the recent example of North Macedonia, where ethnic problems have only worsened as the country continues to go through the accession process.
"North Macedonia is being dragged into the alliance. At the same time, ethnic problems in the country have only worsened over the entire period of Skopje's ascension to the bloc," he said.
The ambassador explained that Albanians in North Macedonia were putting forward their demands in a more and more aggressive manner. Encouraged by neighboring Albania, they ignore the Ohrid Agreement of 2001, which set basic principles of the Macedonian state and called for the disarmament of the Albanian minorities.
Currently, NATO comprises 29 member states. Slovenia joined the bloc in 2004, followed by Albania and Croatia in 2009, and Montenegro in 2017. North Macedonia began active ascension to the bloc after it finally settled its over decade-long naming dispute with Greece.
In the meantime, the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been under consideration since 2008.
