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All Western Balkan countries to join EU and NATO

19. January 2012. | 11:56

Source: Tanjug

All Western Balkan countries should become members of the European Union and NATO, and the U.S.A. should continue to offer support to this process, it was stated Wednesday at a hearing of the U.S. Helsinki Commission in Washington.

All Western Balkan countries should become members of the European Union and NATO, and the U.S.A. should continue to offer support to this process, it was stated Wednesday at a hearing of the U.S. Helsinki Commission in Washington.

Congressmen Christopher Smith and Eliot Engel pointed to the importance of the Euro-Atlantic integration, stressing that the NATO can have an important role in the region's transition.

At the hearing entitled “The Western Balkans and the 2012 NATO Summit”, Congressman Smith said that problems in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina prove that the North Atlantic Alliance should remain present in the region.

Congressman Engel said that the U.S. troops should not retreat from Kosovo and close Camp Bondsteel military base, but rather step up their presence after finishing the mission in Iraq.

He stated that all regional countries should join the EU and NATO, but that Serbia's accession must not be approved before Kosovo's as it might block the latter's entry.

The sooner Belgrade realizes that the division of Kosovo is not possible, the better it will be for peace in the region, Engel said.

The hearing was attended by Executive Director of the Balkan Trust for Democracy Ivan Vejvoda, who said that back in 2006 the Serbian parliament was neutral about the NATO membership, but that today it votes against it.

He underlined that the entire region has made great progress since 2000, and that it would be wrong now to hinder the countries' EU integration progress.

Speaking about Kosovo, Vejvoda said that the situation has calmed down and that all the parties have taken more moderate positions, adding that the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue will be renewed soon.

He also said that the number of KFOR soldiers in Kosovo should not be reduced, since the July conflicts showed that the situation could change at any moment.

Daniel Serwer from The Johns Hopkins University said that Macedonia and Montenegro should enter NATO at the summit in Chicago in May, adding that the injustice done to Skopje at the NATO's last summit would thus be corrected.

According to him, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo are not ready to join NATO.

It is up to Belgrade to decide, but in order to become a NATO member Serbia should respect territorial integrity and sovereignty of its neighbors, Serwer concluded.

Nida Gelazis from Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars said that the Kosovo police will not be an adequate substitute for KFOR for a long time to come.

Last weekend's events show that it will take long for the Kosovo police to live up to the challenges, she noted.

Unlike Serwer, Gelazis noted that Macedonia's NATO accession should be preconditioned by an agreement between Skopje and Athens.

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