At a video conference on April 4, 2020, NATO foreign ministers welcomed North Macedonia as the newest member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO allies had previously signed North Macedonia’s Accession Protocol in February 2019, after which all 29 national parliaments voted to ratify the country’s membership, including Greece, which had been a blocking vote to North Macedonia’s membership.
The country’s accession into NATO had been a long and disputed process that required the country to change its official name from Macedonia to North Macedonia. The name change was made as part of a deal between Greece and the former Yugoslav republic that provided some closure to the age-old dispute between the two countries over the name Macedonia.
Since 1949, NATO’s membership has increased from 12 to 30 countries through eight rounds of enlargement. As of April 2020, there are still three partner countries with declared aspirations to join NATO: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine.
Click here to read our Insight on North Macedonia’s name change.
