Countries move closer to NATO membership

BRUSSELS, July 9 (UPI) -- Top officials at NATO and from Albania and Croatia signed off Wednesday on the alliance's accession protocols, paving the way for full NATO membership.

Lulzim Basha, Albanian minister of foreign affairs, and Gordan Jandrokovic, Croatian minister of foreign affairs, met with officials at NATO Headquarters in Brussels Wednesday for a ceremony to sign the accession protocols, NATO reported.

With the accession protocols signed, NATO countries are each required to ratify the documents before the governments of Albania and Croatia can review the accession protocols. If the ratification process proceeds unchallenged, the ratification instrument will be sent to the U.S. State Department and Albania and Croatia then will become full NATO members.

"This is an historical achievement for these two countries and for the entire Atlantic community of nations," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO secretary-general, said in a statement.

"Both our new allies come from a region that, not long ago, saw the first operational deployment of the alliance and a region that has witnessed the first major conflict on European soil since the end of World War II."