Macedonia, the Balkan state with a little over two million citizens, is poised to become the 30th member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
According to Reuters, the deal depends solely on the willingness of the Macedonian people to adopt a new name for their country to appease Greece, which has long taken issue with Macedonia’s name and has blocked their entrance to NATO in the past.
Although hardliners in both Greece and Macedonia have criticized the new name, Republic of Northern Macedonia, lawmakers in both countries are confident that the referendum will pass, and Macedonia will finally be able to join both NATO and the EU.
Reports suggest that NATO will formally invite Macedonia into the alliance later this week.
“[The invitation to join NATO] is our dream coming true. We have been in the waiting hall for too long,” said Artan Grubi, a Macedonian politician from the Albanian Democratic Union for Integration [DUI] party while speaking to Reuters.
The push to join NATO is an about-face from earlier attempts by the nationalist party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), to cozy up to Russia after Greece blocked Macedonia’s entrance into NATO in 2008.
Both officials from the Russian Federation and from Macedonian parties loyal to Russia have voiced objection. Russia sees the move as a loss of influence in the Balkans and considers any additional NATO countries in the region a threat.
In 2017, The Russian Ambassador to Macedonia, Oleg Shcherbak, stated that “Russia does not need Macedonia”, but that without Russia, Macedonia cannot “survive.” Oleg also warned the Macedonian government to break ties with the west or “face reprisals,” according to a report from The Times of London.