SKOPJE – FYROM will not be invited to join NATO unless there is a mutually acceptable solution to the name dispute, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated in an interview with the country’s MIA news agency, part of which was published on Wednesday.
Stoltenberg, interviewed shortly before his arrival in Skopje, stressed that the Alliance’s position remains unchanged and categorically ruled out the possibility that Macedonia might receive an invitation to join NATO at the July summit in Brussels if a solution to the name dispute has not been found.
“No. NATO’s position remains unchanged. All decisions in NATO are reached based on a consensus among all NATO allies. At the summit in Bucharest and all subsequent summits, they agreed that NATO will invite [FYROM] to join after a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue under UN auspices is reached,” he stressed.