NATO Invites Montenegro to Become Member

"We congratulate the government and people for this achievement, this is a very good day for Montenegro, a good day for the Western Balkans and the whole alliance, " NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the foreign ministers North-Atlantic Council meeting on Wednesday in Brussels.

Montenegro's Foreign Minister Igor Luksic called the NATO invitation a "historic moment for Montenegro". "It is arecognition for the efforts we have made."

"The invitation does not mean the end of the process, it means the beginning of the next stage and reforms will and have to continue. We are aware of all the obligations we are having in the accession period, and we stand ready to successfully complete them," Luksic said.

Montenegro's Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said that the invitation is a result of serious work.

"The invitation is not understood here as a token recognition, but as a strong impulse for continuous work on the implementation of reforms," he said.

Podgorica has pushed to join the alliance after it split from Serbia in 2006. It was given a Membership Action Plan in 2009, which is regarded as a final step before membership.

An ex-Yugoslav republic of 650,000 people, was the alliance's first expansion since 2009, when Croatia and Albania joined. A special session of the Montenegrin parliament has  been scheduled for Thursday in the royal capital of Cetinje.

Stoltenberg said the decision to invite Montenegro was "an important step in the Euro-Atlantic integration of the entire Western Balkans region" and it makes clear that NATO keeps its door open.

While the government of Milo Djukanovic sees joining NATO as a strategic priority, Montenegrins remain bitterly divided about membership.

Many in the...