ALBANIA/CROATIA: Both Albania and Croatia are days away from finally achieving NATO membership

Record ID: 559938

  • Title: ALBANIA/CROATIA: Both Albania and Croatia are days away from finally achieving NATO membership
  • Date: 4th April 2009
  • Summary: ZAGREB , CROATIA (APRIL 2, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS PEDESTRIANS IN STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) RETIRED ZAGREB RESIDENT, IVO, SAYING "I do not know. In the end, no one is saying how much this will cost Croatia. Anyway we are already forced to kneel. If this will cost a lot, then it will be very hard. Well, unless something happens that we would need protection, I hope not, but you never know." (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) ZAGREB RESIDENT, DANICA, SAYING "I think that all countries strive towards some kind of unity, that applies also for Croatia. Together we are stronger. In a way we all also nourish a mutual respect and help each other and if needed we also defend each other." VARIOUS OF PEDESTRIANS IN STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) OWNER OF BOOKSHOP IN ZAGREB, OSMAN HASAN PASIC, SAYING "It's an extremely good and smart thing. And this is a big thing for our safety. Now we are in a big group, and I think this is one of the biggest moves in the past 20 years. I am also in favour regarding joining European Union, but I am a bit more sceptical about it. But as far as NATO goes, by all means yes." PEDESTRIANS IN STREET
  • Embargoed: 19th April 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA73OIRO78AGCQJB3QL6N3FF4R3
  • Story Text: Albania, one of the poorest countries in Europe is brimming with pride at the prospect of finally joining the western military alliance, NATO.
    Government and parliament buildings have been decorated with the flags of NATO members and street concerts have been scheduled to celebrate the joining of the Alliance with fellow Adriatic state Croatia at a NATO summit hosted jointly by France and Germany on Friday (April 3) and Saturday (April 4).
    Since Albania applied to join NATO in 1992, support for membership has steadily risen to 96 percent after NATO's U.S.-led campaign halted the Serbian police and army offensive against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999.
    Half a million Kosovo Albanians who fled to Albania were able to return home under NATO's protection and NATO troops remained in Kosovo for years to maintain security and the province's U.N. administration.

    "From now Albanian, Albania's freedom, Albania's future will have the shield, will have the protection, will have the security of the greatest military and political alliances of all times. God bless NATO. God bless my country," said Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

    "My comment about this is, at last, you know! It was about time to join it. I think it's going to be good for the Albanians. I think it's going to be good for Albania. Although I'm not sure of the consequences especially the economical consequences," said one Tirana resident, Ermal Rama.
    For others joining NATO is about placing Albania on the world map.

    "We think that Albania has begun its integration into the development structures of the developed western world," said 20-year-old Sabina Velcaku.
    Every evening, a projector outside Berisha's office flashes NATO symbols across the main street, on to what once was the office of communist dictator Enver Hoxha.
    There is none of this hoopla in Croatia, where joining NATO is almost taken for granted and the real prize remains the more elusive membership in the European Union.
    Analysts say that although NATO accession is Croatia's biggest international success since becoming independent in 1991, membership for Zagreb has much more symbolic than practical value, showing that the country has met certain standards and was ready for a full role on the international arena.
    But symbolism is also at play for the Alliance itself, which wanted to mark its 60th birthday this month with an expansion into a region which only a decade ago was at war.
    Although NATO stayed on the sidelines during the fighting in the 1990s, Croats have not held a grudge and have been cooperating with the Alliance for years, sending troops to NATO-led missions in far-flung corners such as Afghanistan and Iraq, but also in the neighbourhood, in Kosovo.
    Zagreb's residents are positive about the change with some expressing only mild doubts about the potential cost to the already struggling Croatian economy.

    "I do not know. At the end, no one is saying how much this will cost Croatia. Anyway we are already forced to kneel. If this will cost a lot, then it will be very hard. Well, unless something happens that we would need protection, I hope not, but you never know," said retired Zagreber, Ivo.

    "I think that all countries strive towards some kind of unity, that applies also for Croatia. Together we are stronger. In a way we all also nourish a mutual respect and help each other and if needed we also defend each other," added another Zagreber Danica.
    The country of 4.4 million people is now more famous for its stunning coastline and gourmet food and wines, but it was a precarious corner of Europe less than two decades ago, after Croatia left socialist Yugoslavia in 1991 and waged a four-year independence war with its ethnic Serb minority and the Yugoslav army. Now looking to join the European Union in a couple of years and leave its war-torn past firmly behind, it sees NATO membership as step on the way.

    "It's an extremely good and smart thing. And this is a big thing for our safety. Now we are in a big group, and I think this is one of the biggest moves in the past 20 years. I am also in favour regarding joining European Union, but I am a bit more sceptical about it. But as far as NATO goes, by all means yes," said bookshop owner Osman Hasan Pasic.
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