NATO Membership

For Romania, accession to NATO represents a major evolution, which will  have a decisive influence on the foreign and domestic policy of the  country. Romania becoming a NATO member represents the guarantee of  security and external stability, which is vital for ensuring the  prosperous development of the country; it confirms the place of the  Romanian state in the western family; it ensures the access to the  process of reaching major decision on European and Euro-Atlantic  security; it gives the opportunity to demonstrate the capacity of  coping with the demands required by the member status and to contribute  to promoting the objectives of the Alliance.

Euro-Atlantic integration has represented a major objective of the  Romanian foreign policy, which has been pursued steadily by all the  governments succeeding as of 1990 ( chronology of Romania-NATO  relations ).

Romania has formally requested to accede NATO in 1993. One year later,  Romania became the first state to answer the invitation to participate  in the Partnership for Peace, a programme aimed at Euro-Atlantic  co-operation on security matters, with a major role in the process of  including new members of NATO.

In April 1999, NATO launched the action Plan in order to admit new  members (Membership Action Plan - MAP). As part of this mechanism,  Romania drafted its own national annual Plan for preparation of  accession (PNA), which establishes the objectives, measures and  deadlines for their fulfillment, with a view to orienting, sustaining  and assessing the efforts to be mad for preparing the accession to the  Alliance.

A major contribution to the good preparation of accession was brought  by the strengthening of internal inter-institutional co-operation,  structured as the National Commission for Romania's accession to NATO ,  and of the external one, by co-operation with other candidate states  for accession, in the Vilnius Group , as well as testing the  inter-operability with allies and the actual capacity of contributing  to NATO objectives and missions, by Romania's substantial participation  in peacekeeping operations under the aegis of NATO, UNO, OSCE and in  the fight against terrorism .

At the NATO summit in Prague (November 21-22, 2002), on the basis of  evaluation of the progress made by candidate states, the heads of  states and governments of NATO member countries decided to invite  Romania, together with six other states - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia,  Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia - to begin talks for accession to the  North-Atlantic Alliance.

The experience of successive cycles of the National Action Plan (PNA)  allowed better knowledge by NATO of the countries invited and the  reforms they had made, on one hand, and by the countries invited of the  principles and working methods characteristic to the Alliance, which  made possible the accession talks  between the countries invited and  the Alliance being reduced to only to only two rounds of talks.

Romania, and the other six states invited, has drafted a Calendar for  finalisation of reforms needed to ease integration in the alliance, a  document passed by government and the President of Romania. The  calendar of reforms was sent to the Alliance, annexed to the letter of  intention which the minister of foreign affairs conveyed to the NATO  secretary general, which confirmed Romania's interest, will and  capacity to assume the pledges resulting from the status of member of  the Alliance.

The ambassadors of the NATO member states signed accession Protocols to  NATO for Romania and the other six states invited to accede, during a  March 26, 2003,  ceremony in  Brussels. After the signing of Protocols  by the states invited, they have gradually become involved with  Alliance operations, by participating as observers, with the works of  most of the allied structures.

With the signing of accession Protocols, the process of ratification of  protocols has also been launched in ally countries, at the end of which  the states invited will accede to the North-Atlantic Treaty, and thus  become full members of NATO.

As a future member of NATO, Romania is readying to assume an active and  efficient role in promoting the values and objectives of the Alliance,  by both participating in the operations and missions of the Alliance,  and in the plane of conceptual initiatives and evolutions.

If you want to know more, go to:

the website of the Romanian Mission to NATO in Brussels .