Economics
Balkan State's NATO Green Light Raises Hope for Investment
- Military club’s members sign Balkan state’s accession protocol
- Western accession can boost investment, growth, governor says
Pedestrians cross a bridge in central Skopje.
Photographer: Konstantinos Tsakalidis/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
NATO states signed off on membership for the Republic of Macedonia, a move the Balkan country hopes will boost living standards after a decade of stagnation.
Ambassadors from the alliance’s 29 members approved the accession protocol for the nation soon to be called North Macedonia on Wednesday, allowing the former Yugoslav state to attend meetings before formal membership. At the center of a struggle for influence between Russia and the West, the country of 2 million is one of Europe’s poorest, with output per-capita stuck at just over a third of the European Union’s for the last decade and a fifth of the population unemployed.