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
September 6, literacy courses for local residents were formally opened in the UN Representation in Chaghcharan, capital of province of Ghowr.
more »
Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas and Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini discussed perspectives of developing a bilateral dialogue, intensifying economic cooperation, etc.
more »
During the informal meeting of European Union’s foreign ministers on 4-5 September in Stockholm, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas and his counterparts discussed the issues of Afghanistan, relations with Iran...
more »
On 3 September in Vilnius, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs V. Ušackas met with Vice-President of the European Commission G. Verheugen, responsible for enterprise and industry, and discussed the most important issues of economy, energy and the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon.
more »
On 22 July, the Government approved of the amendments to the Labour Code proposed by the Ministry of Social Security and Labour.
more »
Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs V. Ušackas discussed the problems of Lithuanian carriers while crossing the Russian border with Igor Levitin, Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation and co-chairman of the Lithuanian-Russian intergovernmental commission.
more »
Lithuania‘s Minister of Foreign Affairs welcomed the decision of the new NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to include a joint representative of the Baltic States into a group of experts which is tasked to prepare a new Strategic Concept of NATO.
more »
On 3 August, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas met with Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić, who was paying a visit to Lithuania.
more »
On 30 July, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas bade farewell to outgoing Ambassador of Belgium to Lithuania Filip Cumps and thanked him for his input into fostering bilateral relations.
more »
On 29 July farewell ceremony with the departing Canadian Defence Attaché for Lithuania Jim Petryk was held in the Ministry of National Defence.
more »