NATO should open door to Macedonia, Georgia: Hungary foreign minister.

USPA NEWS - NATO should open door to Macedonia, Georgia: Hungary foreign minister.
NATO should complete the accession process of Montenegro and should leave its door open to Macedonia and Georgia as well, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday.

"If NATO does not continue the enlargement process that would also erode NATO's credibility significantly," Szijjarto told reporters on the sidelines of a conference. Macedonian foreign minister Nikola Poposki told the conference that joining NATO would bring economic prosperity for his country. (Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Toby Chopra) In early December, at a meeting of foreign ministers of NATO member countries, it was announced that Montenegro officially invited to become the 29th participant of the alliance. The Russian authorities reacted to it negatively: Russian Foreign Ministry called the invitation "openly confrontational step" and a spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, has promised to respond to the expansion of NATO. The head of the US Department of State, John Kerry, in turn, then stressed that NATO enlargement is not directed against Russia. In May last year, Kerry announced his intention to help Georgia become a NATO member. "We intend to assist Georgia to implement the Association Agreement with the European Union and its promotion on the path to NATO membership", - he said, noting that Washington strongly supports the "Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Georgia." In 2008, Macedonia's bid to join NATO vetoed Greece. Athens referred to the unresolved dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav republic. The Greek side opposed to the sovereign of the name "Macedonia", because in Greece there is a historical region of the same name. In 2011, the International Court of Justice verdict on the lawsuit Macedonia to Greece, concluding that his veto Athens violated the agreement with Macedonia. Nevertheless, the decision of the court has not ordered Greece to withdraw their objections.