{"id":32373,"date":"2019-02-08T21:22:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T21:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=32373"},"modified":"2019-02-08T21:22:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T21:22:32","slug":"greek-parliament-approves-macedonias-nato-accession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=32373","title":{"rendered":"Greek parliament approves Macedonia’s NATO accession"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Greece<\/a> has ratified a NATO<\/a> accord with Macedonia for the admission of the former Yugoslav Republic into the US-led military alliance after a deal over the name<\/a> ended a 27-year-old dispute between them.<\/p>\n

The Greek parliament on Friday ratified the NATO accession protocol for neighbouring Macedonia\u00a0– renamed North Macedonia<\/a> –\u00a0with 153 votes in favour, 140 against and one abstention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ratification ended a process to normalise relations between the two neighbours and anchor Macedonia firmly within the western sphere of influence.<\/p>\n

“Today’s vote closes the most important round of obligations involving Greece,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told parliament ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to welcome North Macedonia, a country friendly to Greece, a country that must be an ally in efforts to establish security, stability and peace in the region,” he said.<\/p>\n

“History will judge us. I feel we have carried out our patriotic duty.”<\/p>\n

Final step in the deal<\/h2>\n

NATO members signed the accession protocol with Macedonia<\/a> on Wednesday, days after the Greek parliament endorsed an agreement between Athens and Skopje that changed the Balkan state’s name.<\/p>\n

Greece and Macedonia – independent since 1991 – struck the historic agreement to change the name last year, despite protests from opposition parties, and ratified it in parliament.<\/p>\n

The Greek approval of Macedonia’s NATO accession bid is the final step in the deal.<\/p>\n

The two countries remained deadlocked over Macedonia’s name for the duration of the younger country’s existence. But the election of left-led governments in both the countries made them less vulnerable to nationalist pressures.<\/p>\n

The main catalyst for the name change was Macedonia’s wish to join NATO, and, eventually, the European Union<\/a>\u00a0(EU), and the western countries’ desire to diminish Russian influence in the region.<\/p>\n

Greece is a member of both the blocs and has veto power over other countries joining.<\/p>\n

Tsipras had faced large demonstrations<\/a> against the deal, while opinion polls showing more than two-thirds of Greeks opposed to it.<\/p>\n

The agreement also nearly toppled his government last month after triggering the breakup of his coalition<\/a> with the nationalist Independent Greeks party.<\/p>\n

The row over name had also exposed old rivalries with Russia<\/a> in a region where Moscow jostles for influence with the NATO and the EU.<\/p>\n

Moscow had taken a dim view of the name accord, and of Macedonia joining NATO, accusing the alliance of undermining security in the region by taking in Balkan members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greece has ratified a NATO accord with Macedonia for the admission of the former Yugoslav Republic into the US-led military alliance after a deal over the name ended a 27-year-old dispute between them. The Greek parliament on Friday ratified the NATO accession protocol for neighbouring Macedonia\u00a0– renamed North Macedonia –\u00a0with 153 votes in favour, 140…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}