Bosnia making military progress in NATO bid - alliance general
Bosnia meets the military conditions needed to take the next step towards its eventual goal of NATO membership but it remains unclear whether it can satisfy the political requirements, the head of the alliance's military committee said on Tuesday.
Bosnia wants to activate its Membership Action Plan (MAP), a formal step towards joining NATO, but must first complete full registration of all military assets in its two constituent, ethnically-based regions, the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic. Complicating Bosnia's membership drive is the stance of the Serb Republic, which remains wary of a military alliance that bombed Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo in 1995 and 1999. The Serb Republic has said it would hold a referendum on joining NATO.
The Bosnian Serbs have opposed registering their region's military assets to the country's weak central government in Sarajevo. However, the head of NATO's military committee praised Bosnia's progress at the military level.
