Invitation to Balkan country bombed by Nato 17 years ago is likely to inflame tensions between Russia and the west

Nato will take its latest major step towards enlargement – and further increase tension with Russia – when foreign ministers are expected to issue a formal invitation to Montenegro to join the alliance.



Moscow has repeatedly referred to Nato expansion as a “provocation”, and western officials believe it has fuelled anti-government protests in Montenegro in an attempt to derail the country’s membership bid. But its parliament has voted to join Nato and the government in Podgorica has carried out reforms of its armed forces and defence ministry to enhance its eligibility.

Nato’s 28 foreign ministers, who begin a two-day meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, are due to issue the unanimous invitation on Wednesday. It is then likely to take between a year and 18 months for Montenegro to go through the process of joining, 17 years after it was bombed by Nato when it was part of Yugoslavia and involved in the conflict over Kosovo.



“Montenegro has come a long way on its path to join the Euro-Atlantic family,” the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Monday. “Extending an invitation to Montenegro to start accession talks would be a historic decision. It would signal our continued commitment to the western Balkans.”

Stoltenberg would not confirm Montenegro’s invitation, saying that was a matter for foreign ministers, but diplomatic sources in Brussels said the decision had been taken.



Vladimir Putin is rewriting cold war history | Natalie Nougayrède Read more

Slovenia, Croatia and Albania are already full Nato members, but the Russian government has frequently voiced its opposition to the alliance’s further enlargement among members of what was the communist bloc during the cold war. In September, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told a Bosnian newspaper: “With regards to the expansion of Nato, I see it as a mistake, even a provocation in a way. This is … an irresponsible policy that undermines the determination to build a system of equal and shared security in Europe, equal for everyone regardless of whether a country is a member of this or that bloc.”

Asked about the likely Russian reaction to Wednesday’s announcement, the US ambassador to Nato, Douglas Lute, said: “This is not designed as a message to Russia. It is not about Russia.”

Lute said that the Washington treaty that founded Nato required the alliance to stay open to new members if they expressed a desire to join, fulfilled membership criteria including democracy and the capacity to make a military contribution, and were accepted by a unanimous vote of existing members.



At the same time as issuing the invitation, the foreign ministers will also make a statement about the alliance’s continuing open door policy towards the next three countries in line for potential membership: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Georgia. Diplomats say this statement has been the source of more disagreement within the alliance than Montenegrin membership.



The issue of eventual Georgian membership talks are especially troubling to some Nato members, who worry about what security guarantees can be offered to a country from which two regions – Abkhazia and South Ossetia – have broken away with Moscow’s support. Several western capitals now view the declaration at the 2008 Nato summit at Bucharest that Georgia and Ukraine “will become members of Nato” as a mistake.

