North Macedonia's Road to NATO Ratification

More than a decade ago at the 2008 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Bucharest, North Macedonia was assured it could one day become a member of NATO, but the lack of a resolution with Greece over the country's name prolonged the process and resulted in the country's political drift away from Western institutional standards. Nonetheless, on June 17, 2018, the foreign ministers of Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia signed the historic Prespa Agreement, which paved the way for the Republic of North Macedonia to unlock the 27-year door to its stalled Euro-Atlantic integration. On July 11, 2018, NATO formally invited Skopje “to begin accession talks to join” the alliance on the condition that there is a full implementation of all the processes to officially change the country's name.