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Two Balkan countries officially join NATO

01.04.2009

WASHINGTON, April 1 (RIA Novosti) - Albania and Croatia officially became NATO's newest members on Wednesday, bringing the number of countries in the military alliance to 28.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg accepted Albania's and Croatia's instruments of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty for which the United States is the depositary government.

"We welcome the completion of the accession process prior to NATO's 60th Anniversary Summit on April 3 and 4, where Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader will take their seats for the first time representing their countries as members of the alliance," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

Commenting on the accession of new members, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said: "They will now benefit from collective security the alliance offers, but they will also bear the responsibility that collective security requires."

Both Albania and Croatia have already deployed small military contingents as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Croatia has sent 530 soldiers and Albania 140, according to NATO sources.

A flag-raising ceremony marking the accession of Albania and Croatia will be held at NATO headquarters in Brussels on April 7.

The previous NATO expansion took place in 2004 with the accession of seven Eastern European countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania.

At the 2008 summit in Bucharest three countries were promised future invitations - the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia and Ukraine.

Moscow strongly opposes NATO's eastward expansion, viewing it as an attempt to surround and isolate Russia.


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