http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n220328
Focus News Agency May 20, 2010 Serbia's future lies in EU, NATO: Rasmussen Sofia: NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged Serbia Thursday to consider joining the transatlantic military alliance and the EU, saying the Balkan country's future lay in greater integration with Europe, AFP reported. "We all know that for understandable historical reasons, there might be some scepticism in Serbia as regards of a relationship with NATO," Rasmussen said during a one-day visit to the Bulgarian capital. "I would urge not only the Serb political leadership, but the Serb people to look into the future, to consider the situation carefully and to draw the conclusion that the future for Serbia lies within integration with the euro-atlantic community - NATO and the EU." Public opinion in Serbia is strongly against NATO membership, mostly due to NATO's 1999 bombing campaign.... In a recent survey released by the TNS Medium Gallup agency in February, more than two-thirds of Serbs still oppose any future NATO membership. "Serbia is a European country, its future is within that community and I will do my utmost - I know it has to be a step-by-step approach driven by demands from the Serb side - but I would very much like to see progress," the NATO chief said. Rasmussen, who became NATO's secretary general last August, said his mission "is to see all countries in the Balkans integrated in the euro-Atlantic structures NATO and the EU." There were already plans for Bosnia and Hercegovina and Montenegro join the alliance. And "I hope to see progress in our relationship with Serbia as well," he said. As for Macedonia, "it's not for NATO to facilitate further progress," Rasmussen said. "We have made the decision that we are ready to start negotiations with Skopje once a satisfactory solution to the name dispute has been found. But this is primarily a question between Skopje and Athens." Bulgaria, which joined NATO in 2004, could play a "crucial" role in getting other Balkan countries to join, he continued. It could "give advice within NATO and can engage the relevant parties in the Balkans," he said.
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