Bosnian Minister Floats Hopes of Progress Towards NATO

With a meeting of NATO foreign ministers scheduled for December 5 in Brussels, Bosnian Defence Minister Marina Pendes said on Tuesday that she hopes they will recommend the activation of the country's Membership Action Plan, MAP, eight years after it was first proposed.

But Pendes cautioned that this would just be a step on the road to eventual membership.

"Activating the MAP does not mean Bosnia will become a NATO member tomorrow, and people often misinterpret the MAP," she told Bosnian daily newspaper Dnevni Avaz.

The Western military alliance declined to say whether the activation of the Bosnian membership plan would be on the agenda at the Brussels meeting.

"Further details about the agenda and timing of the December meeting of NATO foreign ministers will be made public closer to the time," NATO press officer Dylan White told BIRN.

Ines Kuburovic, a spokesperson at NATO's headquarters in Sarajevo pointed out that the main condition required by the alliance - registration of military property on a state level - has not yet been not fulfilled.

But Kuburovic also said that Bosnia and Herzegovina has shown its commitment to NATO through the involvement of Bosnian soldiers in various peace missions led by the alliance.

On several occasions this year, Pendes has expressed optimism that the activation of the NATO membership plan is likely to happen during 2018.

"It is a matter of days when the MAP will be activated... I believe this will happen in 2018," Pendes told regional TV station N1 in July.

NATO foreign ministers invited Bosnia to join the MAP, a programme of advice, assistance and practical support for countries wishing to join the alliance, in 2010.

The activation of the MAP, however, was...