Scheffer says NATO's doors open to Balkan hopefuls

By Benet Koleka

TIRANA (Reuters) - NATO's secretary-general said on Friday that the alliance's door would be open to nations from the Balkans, whose 1990s wars changed NATO into a peacekeeper, provided they keep reforming and cooperating.

Addressing a meeting of the Adriatic Five charter of new NATO members Croatia and Albania as well as hopefuls Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO and EU membership would help southeast Europe move forward.

Inviting Bosnia and Montenegro last year into the Adriatic Charter Cooperation "was a further demonstration that the logic of working together has become firmly ingrained in this region", Scheffer said.

"Cooperation has replaced confrontation, and this has opened up exciting new opportunities for all of southeast Europe," he told the five Balkan states' foreign ministers in Tirana.

"I have long been convinced that Euro-Atlantic integration offers the only feasible way for southeast Europe to move forward."

Hailing Croatia and Albania's entry into NATO early in April, Scheffer said it was also a success for the whole region and should serve as an example of what could be achieved.

Macedonia failed to be admitted as a NATO member because of 18-year-old objections from Greece over its name, the same as Greece's northernmost province, also the birthplace of ancient Greek hero Alexander the Great.

"We are fully aware that not all countries here in this region have yet been able to realise that ambition. But the logic of integration through NATO enlargement remains as valid as ever," he added.