30 – A Number to Remember. North Macedonia is a Full NATO Member!
North Macedonia, our homeland, is a full member of NATO – the Alliance. The path was long, almost three decades. But we were determined, committed, and focused. We had a clear societal and political vision that our place is in the Alliance.
In 1993, the Parliament adopted the Decision for joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, i.e., NATO. Just two years later, we became part of the Partnership for Peace, and in 1996 we opened our permanent mission to the Alliance. We gained candidate status for NATO membership in the now distant 1999.
In 2002, our Army began contributing to the NATO mission in Afghanistan (ISAF). Since 2005, we have joined NATO’s Operational Capabilities Concept, and ten years later, we started contributing to the new, substantially revised NATO mission in Afghanistan, called "Resolute Support".
The NATO Accession Protocol was signed on February 6, 2019, and the first participation of a Macedonian Minister of Defence in a North Atlantic Council meeting followed just one week later, on February 13–14, 2019. That year saw two additional participations, followed by the first attendance at the Leaders’ Summit at the end of the year, and another participation by the Minister of Defence, the fourth in total, in mid-February of the following year.
The process of ratifying the Accession Protocol in the parliaments of all 29 allies progressed at an exceptionally fast pace. The first ratification, by the Greek Parliament, was on February 8, 2019, while the penultimate was by the French Parliament on November 21. The ratification in the Spanish Parliament was delayed due to the electoral cycle in the country and was finalized on March 17 of the following year.
On March 20, President Stevo Pendarovski signed the Instrument of Accession of North Macedonia to NATO.
On March 27, 2020, North Macedonia became the 30th full member of the North Atlantic Alliance. A decades-long dream became reality. The efforts bore fruit. Courage and dedication paid off. The homeland – in peace, security, and prosperity. The country – equal among equals. Together with the strongest!
On March 30, the flag of the Republic of North Macedonia was raised at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, at the Allied Command Operations in SHAPE – Mons, and at the Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia.
What is NATO? – Fact Shee
1949 – FOUNDING OF NATO
12 founding countries (1949): Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the USA, and the United Kingdom.
Accessions:
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1952: Greece and Turkey
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1955: Germany
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1982: Spain
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1999: Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland
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2004: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia
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2009: Albania and Croatia
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2017: Montenegro
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2020: North Macedonia
Current number of member states: 30
Total population in NATO countries: ~940 million people (12.34% of the world’s population)
Total land area of NATO countries: 24.52 million km² (16.32% of the habitable surface)
Total GDP of NATO member states (2018): over $36 trillion