THE small Balkan country of Macedonia has taken a big step towards becoming the 30th member of Nato, the world’s biggest military alliance.
In a move that marked the end of a long dispute with Greece over Macedonia’s name, and less than two decades after Nato deployed troops to the country as it teetered on the brink of civil war, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg and Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov led an “accession protocol” signing ceremony at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters.
“This is a historic occasion,” Stoltenberg told Nato country envoys before they put pen to paper.
“We have waited for you to join our family for a long time.”
He said the signing ceremony marks the start of the ratification process.
Montenegro, the last country to join Nato, had to wait about a year for all members to formally endorse its accession protocol.
Greece is set to become the first to do so this week. Macedonia will then start calling itself North Macedonia and will join under that name, possibly late this year or in early 2020.
ROMANIAN police have detained an Italian citizen who allegedly posed as a plastic surgeon in clinics around Bucharest.
Border police detained Matteo Politi on a train on the Romanian-Hungarian border early yesterday after an alert went out. A statement said he was being investigated for fraud.
Politi, 38, who used the alias Matthew Mode, had been operating in several private clinics.
The College of Medics said on Tuesday that it had not issued Politi with a licence to practice.
Romanian health authorities, who must also issue a separate permit to doctors, say he was given one in March 2018 after submitting a fake diploma claiming he had qualified as a doctor in Kosovo.
PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to continue security co-ordination with Israel, despite recent US funding cuts to Palestinian security forces and years of impasse in the peace process.
President Abbas told a gathering of Palestinian and Israeli activists yesterday that his government has counter-terrorism agreements with nearly 100 countries, including Israel.
He says the West Bank Government has a “joint agreement to fight terrorism” with Israel, and “will not violate it” – because if it does, “nothing will remain”.
He added his hopes that a party committed to peace would succeed in the upcoming Israeli elections.
The US cut all aid to the Palestinian Authority, including $61 million (£47m) in security assistance, when an anti-terrorism law took effect last week.
The forces are considered crucial for Palestinian and Israeli safety.
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