Turkey pushes for Syria focus at NATO

While some members did not favor it, at Turkey’s insistence a special paragraph was devoted to Syria in the NATO Chicago summit declaration.

During the summit, NATO leaders said they were following the Syrian crisis with growing concern and that they supported the complete implementation of the six-point Annan Plan as well as the efforts of the United Nations and the Arab League.

Turkey’s stressing the importance of the continuation of an open door policy in NATO was also reflected in the NATO declaration. The declaration said the alliance would be open to all European democracies that share the values of NATO and that an enlargement perspective would strengthen stability in Europe.

The NATO declaration stated that as soon as the name crisis between Macedonia and Greece is solved, Macedonia would be admitted as a member of NATO.

Thanks to Turkey’s efforts, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s progress towards becoming a NATO member received praise at the summit. Although Bosnia and Herzegovina made successful efforts in its NATO membership bid, due to the political crisis it could not implement the preconditions of membership in its initial stage.

In addition, leaders at the summit approved a new NATO action plan against counterterrorism.