After Slovenia officially ratified Croatia’s accession to NATO, the country will join the alliance on March 4. Albania is also scheduled to join the alliance then as the other 25 members have ratified both Croatia’s and Albania’s accession to the organization.
Slovenia, a member of both the EU and NATO, had vetoed Croatia’s bid to join the EU in December because of a dispute between the two nations over a small bit of land and sea rights. Slovenia would like to have direct access to international seas, but Croatia would have to cede part of its own sea rights.
While the territorial dispute has help up the accession of Croatia to the EU, Slovenia said the same documents were not used in the NATO membership talks so it agreed to let the country join. The European Commission is mediating in an attempt to find a compromise solution that would allow Croatia to complete its EU talks this year.
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