Skopje's Admission To NATO Almost Coincides With Date Of 1999 Attack On Yugoslavia -Moscow

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st March, 2020) The announcement of the North Macedonian authorities on the country's admission to NATO almost coincided with the anniversary of the alliance's bombing of Yugoslavia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

On March 27, North Macedonia officially joined NATO as its 30th member, when the instrument for its accession to the Washington Treaty was formally deposited with the US State Department. The ex-Yugoslavian country joined NATO 21 years after the alliance attacked Yugoslavia � the airstrikes started on March 24, 1999.

"The leaders of North Macedonia did not miss the opportunity to proudly declare that the country's membership in NATO was historic, and guaranteed stability and safety, even despite the ongoing state of emergency ... At the same time, the fact that the formal entry into the alliance practically coincided with another anniversary of the beginning of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was forgotten," the ministry said.

In 1999, the armed confrontation between the Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic-Albanian militia that had supported Kosovo's independence since the 1990s, and the Serbian army and police led to NATO airstrikes against what was Yugoslavia, which included modern Serbia and Montenegro.