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Accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to NATO

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Accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to NATO

The accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is in the negotiations stage as of 2010. Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the Partnership for Peace in 2006, and signed an agreement on security cooperation in March 2007. The nation began further cooperation with NATO within their Individual Partnership Action Plan in January 2008. Bosnia then started the process of Intensified Dialogue at the 2008 Bucharest summit. The country was invited to join the Adriatic Charter of NATO aspirants on September 25, 2008. Then in November 2008, a joint announcement from the Defence Minister and NATO Mission Office in Sarajevo suggested that Bosnia and Herzegovina could join NATO by 2011 if it continues with the reforms made in the defence-area so far.

In January 2009, Defence Minister Selmo Cikotić again confirmed Bosnia's interest in seeking a Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the 2009 summit, with membership by 2012 at the latest. In February 2009 The Defence Minister of BiH Selmo Cikotic presented some poll numbers on NATO-membership: 70% of the country supports NATO-membership; However while 89% of the Federation Entity supports NATO-membership, only in 44% RS-entity did. While the country did not receive an MAP at the April 2009 summit in Strasbourg–Kehl, Stuart Jones, an official of the US State Department, said on a September 2009 visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina that NATO was going to look at the possibilities for them to receive one in a December 2009 summit, repeating strong US support for the possibility. Then on October 2, 2009, Haris Silajdžić, the Bosniak Member of the Presidency, announced official application for Membership Action Plan. On April 22, 2010, NATO agreed to launch the Membership Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but with certain conditions attached. Turkey is thought to be the biggest supporter of Bosnian membership, and heavily influenced the decision.

In 2014, prior to its 65th anniversary, NATO announced that it would not be offering any new countries membership into the organization that year. In addition to this development, as of 2014, Bosnia and Herzegovina has yet to fulfil one of the main conditions to enter the alliance: the transfer of 63 military facilities from the local level to the central government.

The 1995 NATO bombing of Bosnia and Herzegovina targeted the Bosnian Serb Army and together with international pressure led to the resolution of the Bosnian War and the signing of the Dayton Agreement in 1995. Since then, NATO has led the Implementation Force and Stabilization Force, and other peacekeeping efforts in the country.

References

Accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to NATO Wikipedia


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