Enlargement of NATO

John McCain

The United States will continue to support Bosnia and Herzegovina in its efforts to join the European Union and NATO, McCain said on Wednesday following his visit to the country.

After US President Donald Trump signed the NATO accession protocol for Montenegro - removing one of the last remaining obstacles to membership of the alliance - NATO foes in Montenegro are looking to The Netherlands - one of two alliance members which still did not ratify the treaty, along with Spain - to block the process.

AP Photo/ Jae C. Hong

US President Donald Trump has signed a protocol on the accession of Montenegro to NATO, which has completed its ratification procedure in the United States.

The White House has not officially released a statement on the signing of the protocol, Voice of America is reporting on Tuesday.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the alliance "learned a lesson from operations in Afghanistan, but also in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina."

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged NATO allies to increase defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product, and asked each country to have a plan in place to fulfill funding commitments by the May 25 NATO leaders summit.

Montenegro is ready to become the newest member of the North Atlantic Treaty organisation after the US Senate voted by a large majority to ratify the accession of the country to the alliance, reported The New York Times, cited by Focus agency.

97 senators voted "for" and only 2 voted "against" the accession of Montenegro to NATO.

The US Senate has ratified a protocol on the accession of Montenegro to NATO.

"The long-delayed vote was 97-2 in favor of Montenegro's accession," Reuters reported.

Montenegro has moved closer to becoming a NATO member after the US Senate approved the country’s admission into the military alliance.

A long-awaited vote in the US Senate on Montenegro's NATO bid is set to take place on Monday, marking the final step in the country's seven-year accession process.

The move to schedule a vote on the accession bid in the Senate came after Donald Trump's White House urged lawmakers to speed up the procedure to ratify the Accession Protocol.

Most Serbians would not accept a NATO apology for the 1999 bombing campaign and are against the country's membership in the alliance.

This is the case even though they chiefly blame the intervention on Slobodan Milosevic's policy, Tanjug is reporting, citing a survey conducted by the Institute for European Affairs NGO on Friday.