BRUSSELS, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Seven years after bombing Serbia, NATO accepted the former foe, along with Bosnia and Montenegro, as peace partners on Thursday, a move as the first step to grant membership.
In a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer signed the Partnership for Peace agreement with each leader of the three western Balkans countries, which gained their independence after the collapse of former Yugoslavia.
"Today's meeting represents the beginning of a new chapter in NATO-Serbia relations. Serbia is now on the path of Euro-Atlantic integration," said Scheffer when signing the bilateral agreement with Serbian President Boris Tadic.
The NATO chief also warned that Serbia and Bosnia must intensify their efforts to crack down the war crimes suspects wanted by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, a thorny issue hindering the cooperation between the two countries and NATO.
"The decision to invite us to join is of great historical importance not only for my country and our region but I believe for all the countries represented in this room," Serbian President Boris Tadic said, adding that his country will do everything possible to bring former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic to The Hague for trial.
The decision to accept the three Balkans states as peace partners was taken at the NATO's Rigga Summit last month.
"This will help to bring the region more fully into the Euro-Atlantic family," Scheffer said then.
The Partnership for Peace is a program of practical bilateral cooperation between individual partner countries and NATO. It allows partner countries to build up an individual relationship with NATO, choosing their own priorities for cooperation.
The program is considered the first step on the way of joining NATO, but it does not offer any guarantee of eventual membership.
With the admission of the three new countries, 23 countries in Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia are now members of the program.
