National Coordinator for NATO Vesko Garcevic says that according to the announcement the Hungarian Parliament will ratify the protocol on 13 June.
“We believe that the process will be quickly continued. As expected, the countries in the region are the first to ratify the protocol and then the rest of NATO member states will do the same, for example Poland”, said Garcevic.
He said he did not expect delays, but he could not specify the country which would be the last to ratify the protocol.
“All of the countries do that on the basis of their internal procedures. According to earlier experience, we can be aware which countries usually have complicated internal procedures such as, for example, Belgium and the Netherlands, so we can expect that the ratification may take a little longer in those countries. But I want to emphasise that this has nothing to do with a political stance – it is only about the procedures”, Garcevic explained.
He added that the process should last one year.
“We expect Montenegro to become a full member of the alliance next year. We participate in the work of NATO, in the preparatory meetings, we are actually there, sitting at the same table, so the ratification process represents only a stamp on the real situation”, Garcevic said.