| NATO may induct Serbia into Partnership for Peace |
| 28 November 2006 | 18:29
| Source:
AP |
RIGA --
NATO may invite Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia to join the Partnership for Peace at the Riga summit.
"I expect Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro to be given a green light for the Partnership for Peace at this summit," Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said. "For Slovenia it is important for the PFP to be enlarged and for the Adriatic Three to be given a clear signal for membership in the near future," Slovenia's foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel said on Tuesday.
The Adriatic Three refers to Croatia, Albania and Macedonia.
Before the conference opened, NATO officials were at pains to stress that this was not an "enlargement summit" and that no new members would be invited to join the alliance or the Partnership for Peace.
Serbia and Bosnia were earlier excluded from PFP because of their failure to apprehend the two leading war crimes suspects indicted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague.
Tiny Montenegro, Europe's newest nation, was not seen as problematic, but NATO leaders wanted to include it in PFP in a package with the other two Balkan nations.
NATO spokesman James Appathurai declined to confirm or deny the report, saying no definite decision had been taken on PFP membership.
"We'll see how the discussion evolves today and tomorrow," he said.
But two NATO diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed Rupel's statement saying that there had been "a change in positions" on the PFP during consultations on Tuesday.
Under a new arrangement, Serbia and Bosnia would be allowed into the PFP on condition that they apprehend all remaining war crimes suspects by the end of 2007, they said.
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