NATO and Macedonia signed an accord on Wednesday to join Macedonia, a move that will make Macedonia a major step to become the 30th country in the military alliance. .
The move would allow Macedonia to participate in NATO meetings as an observer until all allies have ratified the accession protocol.
The signing follows a long-running dispute between Macedonia and Greece, a NATO member.
Zoran Zayev, prime minister of what will be called North Macedonia, hailed the signing of the accession protocol to proclaim a "never-ending" period of progress for Macedonia.
Today, the largest security alliance in history, NATO, has welcomed us, today we stand by our allies, "he wrote on his Facebook social networking page.
Macedonia agreed last year, after lengthy negotiations, to change its name to Northern Macedonia, in order to distinguish it from an ancient Greek territory called the territory of Macedonia.
The name will be officially changed once Greece ratifies Macedonia´s accession protocol, a move expected in the coming days.
"What is important is that we will never be alone," said Macedonia´s Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov after the signing of the protocol. "We stand behind the 29 allies, and we have the capacity and the willingness to fulfill our commitments to our full membership."
The signing ceremony was attended by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and representatives of 29 member states of the alliance.
Stoltenberg said Macedonia had shown it could "contribute to common security" in reference to its assistance to NATO´s mission in Afghanistan.
Skopje also showed that she could carry out reforms and modernize her defense institutions.
Russia is strongly critical of NATO´s expansion to the east and considers it a direct threat to its security.
