NATO ministers expected to grant Montenegro membership invitation

Brussels (dpa) - NATO foreign ministers were set Wednesday to decide whether to invite Montenegro to join their military alliance, with expectations high that they will welcome the small Balkan country into their fold despite Russian concerns.Montenegro would become NATO‘s 29th member state and its third nation from the Western Balkans after Albania and Croatia."Most likely ... we‘re going to send an invitation tomorrow," Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen told journalists at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday."Montenegro should be looking quite encouraged to our discussion tomorrow," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier added. "We are supporting the invitation to Montenegro."Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said the country "could be an important ally for NATO," while US NATO ambassador Douglas Lute argued that its membership in the military alliance can also "serve a stabilizing role in the Western Balkans."Russia, however, has warned that the move would be harmful to European security and would further strain relations between NATO and Moscow, which are already at a low point over the crisis in Ukraine.If NATO extends the membership invitation, accession talks and a parliamentary ratification process in existing NATO member states will have to take place before the nation, once part of Yugoslavia, can formally join.Bosnia, Georgia and Macedonia are also keen to join the alliance, but have not made enough progress so far. The ministers will on Wednesday also comment on their membership prospects.Later in the day, the ministers will meet their counterpart from Ukraine, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin."We will reconfirm our political support to Ukraine and we will review our practical support to help Ukraine modernize its command and control, cyber and logistic capabilities," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.The ministers will also discuss the Minsk ceasefire deal for eastern Ukraine, which was agreed in February and was supposed to be implemented by the end of the year."Recently we have seen an upsurge in the violations, more fighting," Stoltenberg noted. "This is of course something which causes concern."