Slovakia says it and six other countries would become NATO members at a ceremony on April 2 in Brussels
Published:
3 March 2004 y., Wednesday
Slovakia says it and six other countries would become NATO members at a ceremony on April 2 in Brussels, months before a summit originally planned to welcome them in June.
"There will probably be a ceremony in Brussels on the level of foreign ministers in April... but we are still not sure what the official ceremony will be like," said Slovak Foreign Ministry spokesman Juraj Tomaga.
Mr Tomaga says there would probably be another celebration to mark the landmark enlargement sometime later.
Ex-communist states Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria were initially expected to join NATO at a flag-raising ceremony in Istanbul at the end of June.
Their admission will take the defence alliance from 19 to 26 members.
NATO's first wave of eastward expansion came in 1999 when Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined. This enlargement will extend the 54-year-old alliance's land-link to its furthest eastern member Turkey.
NATO's most influential member, the United States, is expected to shift military bases from western Europe to the former eastern bloc and sharply reduce its 70,000 troops in Germany, a legacy of the Cold War.
Šaltinis:
abc.net.au
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
On 24 September in New York, Lithuania convened the first informal meeting of foreign ministers since the beginning of its Presidency of the Community of Democracies.
more »
September 22-24, Lithuanian and Estonian participants will gather in the training for steering groups of the Baltic Battalion's subdivisions to be held in the Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas Infantry Battalion in Rukla.
more »
On September 23-25, the First Sea Lord and Chief of the UK Naval Staff Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope will pay a formal visit in Lithuania.
more »
On 17 September in Kabul, six Italian soldiers were killed and four more were wounded...
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė sent congratulations to Mr. José Manuel Barroso on his approval by the European Parliament as President of the European Commission.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and the accompanying delegation visiting Lithuania.
more »
Chief of Defence of Lithuania Maj. Gen. Arvydas Pocius will take part in the meeting of NATO Defence Committee held in Lisbon, Portugal, September 18-21.
more »
During a meeting of the European Union’s General Affairs and External Relations Council on 14-15 September in Brussels, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas and his counterparts discussed the preparation for the European Council on 29-30 October and etc.
more »
On September 12 charitable table soccer tournament will be held in Alytus to raise funds for table soccer equipment to be sent to Afghanistan, for schoolchildren in Ghowr.
more »
September 8, Minister of National Defence Rasa Juknevičienė will attend celebrities of sanctification of a monument put up in Gruzdiškės Hill (Raseinių Township) for victims of resistance fights.
more »